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JOURNAL OF A TOUR 



IN THE YEARS 1828—1829, 



STYRIA, CARNIOLA, AND ITALY, 



WHILST ACCOMPANYING 



THE LATE SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. 



BY J. J. TOBIN, M.D. 










LONDON : 
W. S. ORR, 14, PATERNOSTER ROW 



1832. 



-T 



«\1 



-X*.* 1 * 



LONDON: 

BBADBUKY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, 

BOUVERIE STREET. 



PREFACE. 



The following pages were originally intended 
for the perusal only of my own family and im- 
mediate friends. Some of these now persuade 
me to lay them before the public, believing that, 
to it, a detail of circumstances connected, as my 
Journal necessarily is, with the last recreations 
and pursuits of the late Sir Humphry Davy, must 
be interesting. To have been in any degree a 
partaker of the hours of this great man, whose 
name must shed a lustre over his native land, so 
long as genius and science shall be admired, I 



IV PREFACE. 

cannot be supposed to imagine otherwise than 
highly gratifying ; and aware that my Journal 
through him bears an interest it could not 
otherwise pretend to, I do not hesitate to com- 
ply with their request. 

The state of Sir Humphry's health inducing 
him to seek its restoration in a tour on the 
Continent, he wrote to my mother, who was 
residing on my account and that of my brothers 
at Heidelberg, stating his plan to her, and 
naming his wish to have a son of his " warmly- 
loved and sincerely-lamented friend," as the assist- 
ant and companion of his journey. My mother 
did not hesitate to suspend my studies during the 
period of the proposed tour, conscious that in 
the society of such a mind and acquirements 
as those of Sir Humphry, mine must advance. 
And to have been the companion of his latter 
days, clouded as they often were by the suf- 
ferings which I beheld him endure, will be 



PREFACE. V 

my last pride and advantage; and though the 
hand of death has laid low many a hope which 
gilded the future, it cannot deprive me of the 
recollection of those hours, when I marked his 
spirit still radiant and glowing (to use his own 
words) 

" With the undying energy of strength divine." 

Sir Humphry's health was in so shattered a 
state, that it often rendered his inclinations and 
feelings sensitive and variable to a painful de- 
gree. Frequently he preferred being left alone 
at his meals ; and in his rides, or fishing and shoot- 
ing excursions, to be attended only by his ser- 
vant. Sometimes he would pass hours together, 
when travelling, without exchanging a word, 
and often appeared exhausted by his mental ex- 
ertions. When he passed through Heidelberg 
to see my mother, he named all this to her, and 
with evident feeling thanked her for her request. 



VI PREFACE. 

that he would on all occasions consider me as 
alone desirous to contribute to his ease and 
comfort. I mention this to account for my 
having so seldom spoken of his passing remarks, 
and for any apparent change which occurred 
in our arrangements, named in the Journal. 

To give any adequate idea of the beauty and 
grandeur of the scenes I beheld, must be well 
known to be impossible by those who have 
visited these parts of Europe, or been accus- 
tomed to view the changing tints and hues of 
the fine sky that encircles them ; but if I have 
imparted only a faint reflection of the pleasure 
such scenes bestow, even in recollection, or have 
given enjoyment to any of my readers, my 
object will be fully attained, nor shall I then 
regret having listened to the voice of my perhaps 
too partial friends. J. J. T. 

Heidelberg, 
March 14, 1831. 



JOURNAL, 

&c. &c. 



On my arrival in London (26th March, 1827) 
I found Sir Humphry better than I had ex- 
pected, but evidently very weak. He appeared 
to have altered much during the four years 
which had elapsed since I last saw him, and 
it was evident that although his mind was 
still vigorous and full of energy, his bodily 
infirmities pressed heavily upon him, and I 
could not but perceive that he was keenly 
alive to his altered state. I had hoped to 
have remained some little time in London, 
but finding that everything was ready for our 
departure, I contented myself with calling upon 
a few old friends, and taking my seat by Sir 

B 



2 DEPARTURE FROM LONDON. 

Humphry's side, his servant George being on 
the dicky with his master's favourite pointers, 
we drove from Park Street on the morning of 
the 29th of March. We slept that night at 
Dover, which we left the next morning at half- 
past nine o'clock, and arrived at Calais about 
twelve, after a beautiful and calm passage. Sir 
Humphry wishing to be left to repose quietly 
on his bed in the cabin, I took my favourite seat 
on the prow, and sat musing on times past and 
to come, looking upon the curling waves which 
were glittering with a thousand golden colours 
in the bright beams of the morning sun. The 
weather formed a strong contrast with that of 
the day before, when the only change had been 
from sleet and snow to hail and rain. The dif- 
ference between the English and French coasts 
is very striking ; and the contrast between the 
lofty white chalk cliffs of the one, and the gay 
and verdant hills of the opposite shore, seems 
almost emblematical of the national peculiarities 
of the two countries. 

Sir Humphry was provided with a letter 
from Prince Polignac, the French Ambassador 
at London, to the Director of the Douane, 



CALAIS. 3 

which greatly facilitated our passing the Custom 
house, where otherwise we should have had 
much difficulty from the variety of the luggage; 
among which, to say nothing of scientific in- 
struments, and upwards of eighty volumes of 
books, were numerous implements for fishing 
and shooting, and the two pointers. We went 
to the Hotel Rignolle, a large and excellent 
inn, where Sir Humphry's travelling carriage 
awaited us, and we found it in every respect 
easy and commodious. After dinner I prepared 
and arranged every thing for our departure on 
the morrow, for the servant could on such occa- 
sions render me but little assistance, he not 
speaking a word of any language but English; 
and then took a walk through the town and 
bought a pack of cards, which Sir Humphry 
had begged me to bring that he might teach me 
the game of ecarte. During my walk I was 
amused by seeing both old and young dressed 
in their holiday clothes, playing at battledore 
and shuttlecock in the open streets. I soon re- 
turned; and after we had played a game to- 
gether, I read aloud some of the " Tales of the 
Genii," and we then retired to rest. 
b2 



4 DUNKIRK. 

31 st. This morning I arose with thoughts of 
Heidelberg, it being dear F ## *'s birthday, which 
I knew would therefore be one of pleasure in the 
happy home I had left. After breakfast we set 
off for Dunkirk. The country through which we 
passed is exceedingly flat and uninteresting. 
On arriving at Gravelines, a strongly fortified 
little town, we found that the carriage had 
sunk, the leathers being new, so that we were 
obliged to send for a smith and a saddler, who 
detained us nearly two hours. We then pro- 
ceeded through the same uninteresting flat to 
Dunkirk. After dinner we walked out to see 
the town, which is very clean, and has good 
broad streets. Near the market place is the 
episcopal church of Cambrai, the diocese of the 
celebrated Fenelon. The portico is chaste and 
beautiful, consisting of ten lofty corinthian pil- 
lars supporting a frieze. The interior of the 
church is simple and elegant. The harbour of 
Dunkirk is large, but nearly choked up with 
mud ; on one side of it is a large basin newly 
made, which is kept full at low water by means 
of flood gates. 

April 1st We started after breakfast for 
Ghent, and passed first through Bergues, a little 



NETHERLANDS. 5 

town with very strong fortifications. At Rous- 
brugge, three postes and a half from Dunkirk, 
we entered the territory of the King of the 
Netherlands. We passed the custom house 
without having any part of our baggage ex- 
amined, Sir Humphry's passport being signed 
by the Dutch Ambassador at London, who had 
added to his signature a request to the officers 
on the boundary to treat ce celebre sgavant with 
all possible attention and respect. 

The country beyond Rousbrugge becomes 
rather more diversified; the hedges, which are 
formed of small trees, are often very prettily in- 
terwoven, forming a fence at once useful and 
elegant ; and we passed the first hill, a very low 
one, which we had seen since we left Calais. 
We drove on through Ypres and Menin, and 
spent the night at Courtrai. All these towns 
are strongly fortified, chiefly I believe under 
the direction of the celebrated Vauban, and 
are called the iron boundary of Holland. They 
are kept very clean and neat. Ypres has a fine 
large gothic town-house, with an immense 
number of windows in it. I read in the evening 
to Sir Humphry part of the " Bravo of Venice," 



b ANTWERP. 

and he dictated a few pages on the existence of 
a greater quantity of carbon in the primary 
world, and on some of the phenomena of the 
Lago di Solfatara, near Rome. His clear 
reasoning, and the proofs and facts which he 
adduces in support of his theories, still show 
the quick and powerful mind of his former 
days, when his bodily faculties were in the 
fulness of their vigour, and not, as now, a 
weight and oppression upon his mental powers. 
2nd. The first poste after leaving Courtrai 
was Vive St. Eloi, an assemblage of a few 
shabby houses, hardly worthy the name of a 
village; thence to Peteghen and to Ghent. 
The country is flat, and anything but pictu- 
resque, and almost every field has a windmill 
in it. We only stopped to dine at Ghent, and 
then immediately started for Antwerp, where 
we arrived at about seven in the evening, pass- 
ing through Lakesen and St. Nicholas. We 
were ferried over the Scheldt, and afterwards 
transported to the inn in a very novel manner. 
On arriving at the ferry opposite the town, the 
post-horses were taken out of the carriage, 
which was pushed into the ferry-boat by four 



THE CATHEDRAL. / 

men, who with some difficulty dragged it out 
when on the other side of the river, and then 
drew it with us in it through the town to the 
inn, more than half a mile distant from the 
landing place. After tea I continued the "Bravo 
of Venice," and read Voltaire's " Bababec et les 
Faquirs" to Sir Humphry. 

Srd. We did not breakfast till late, and 
afterwards drove out to see the town in spite 
of hail and snow. Our first visit was to the 
cathedral, which much disappointed us both as 
to its internal and external appearance. It 
strongly reminded me of that of Strasbourg, 
which it resembles in its minuteness of archi- 
tecture, and even in the circumstance of its 
having its left tower in an unfinished state. 
The right tower, which is complete, is neither 
so light, or airy, nor by any means so beautifully 
sculptured as that of Strasbourg ; nor does the 
building, as a whole, bear any comparison with 
the latter in beauty and eifect. The interior is 
beautiful from its simplicity ; and its having 
been newly white-washed gave it a light and 
cheerful appearance. It contains some fine pic- 
tures ; the chief of which are the " Crucifixion," 



A CALVARY. 



and the " Descent from the Cross," by Reubens. 
The pulpit, the largest and most beautiful 
specimen of carved wood I ever saw, represents 
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. We 
afterwards went into many of the various 
churches, some of which are adorned with very 
fine paintings. In that of St. Barbara are some 
very curious and beautifully carved wooden 
confessionals, in a style similar to that of the 
pulpit in^the cathedral. Near this church is a 
celebrated Calvary, * which also includes a re- 
presentation of Purgatory and of Heaven, being 
an assemblage of demons and saints in the most 
wretched taste. On one side, through a 
grating, the mortal remains of our Saviour in 
the tomb are presented to view ; on the op- 
posite side the Virgin Mary appears decked out 
with flowers and gold lace, surrounded by a 
choir of angels and saints; and on looking 
through a third grating one gets a peep at pur- 
gatory, where the wicked are seen swimming 



* A Calvary is a representation of the Crucifixion of our Saviour, 
consisting of one, and often of three large crosses, with accompanying 
figures and decorations. 



GOOD FRIDAY. » 

about among waves of flame in the strangest 
confusion imaginable. The whole of this re- 
presentation appeared to us most ridiculous ; yet 
not so to many good Catholics, whom we saw 
silently kneeling before the gratings, and ap- 
parently devoutly praying for those souls who 
had been dear to them whilst upon earth. 
The devotion of many, however, was not so ab- 
stract as to render them indifferent to the pre- 
sence of Sir Humphry, whose appearance, it 
is true, was likely to abstract attention, even 
though unknown, wrapped up as he was in a 
large mantle lined with white fur. 

In all the churches which we visited, the 
priests and attendants were busied in preparing 
them for the next day, (Good Friday.) Though 
the subject represented, the Tomb of Christ, 
with its surrounding scenery, attendants, and 
guards, was the same in every church, it was 
much more beautifully executed in some than 
in others. A part of the church was in general 
nearly encircled and darkened by hangings of 
black cloth, and a recess was thus formed, in 
which, in some of the churches, a stage of con- 
siderable depth was erected, on which was 



10 



FISH-MARKET. 



painted the scene of the tomb, with its figures, 
side scenes, and distant views, very skilfully 
managed. The perspective was well kept ; and 
the whole being very well illuminated by 
unseen lamps, the effect was quite theatrical. 

Leaving these scenes of papal devotion, we 
drove to the harbour, a work of Napoleon's, 
which, like most of his other works, is remark- 
able for its strength and durability. Its size is 
not very striking ; but it was tolerably well filled 
with shipping of all nations, amongst which I 
observed many English, and some North- Ame- 
rican vessels. From thence we drove through 
the town; and Sir Humphry could not omit 
paying a visit to the fish-market, which, luckily 
for his white mantle, was not Billinsgate. The 
market did not appear to be very well stocked, 
and he could find nothing remarkable or new 
to satisfy his ever active curiosity. The town 
appears clean, and has some large open streets, 
the principal of which is called the Mere, in 
which our hotel, Le Grand Labour eur^ is situated; 
it possesses no very remarkable buildings ; and 
the town house and the celebrated exchange, 
make, at least externally, a very poor show. 



BRUSSELS. 11 

The picture gallery, which is said to be very 
excellent, was unfortunately closed, it being 
a fete day. Our visits to the churches and 
the different parts of the town had fully oc- 
cupied our morning, and in the evening after 
dinner I read to Sir Humphry Voltaire's "His- 
toire de la Voyage de la Raison," and finished 
the " Bravo," which he much admired. 

4th. Left Antwerp in the morning, and pass- 
ing through Coutegle, Malines, or Mechlin, we 
arrived at Brussels about one o'clock. The road 
runs nearly the whole of the way on the bank of 
a large canal, and is often bordered by a row of 
fine beech trees. The appearance of this capi- 
tal from a distance is rather imposing ; the hand- 
somer and more modern part of it being situated 
upon a hill, at the bottom of which lies the old 
town, on the banks of the river Senne. The 
gate through which we entered is remarkably 
handsome, and the style of architecture light and 
elegant. We drove to the Hotel de Flandres, 
on the Place Royale, where we were very well 
accomodated. Before dinner I took a hasty run 
through the town, just to see the fine old gothic 
town-house, with its light and lofty spire, sur- 



12 LOUVAINE. 

mounted by a colossal statue of St. Michael and 
the dragon, which acts as a vane ; and the parks, 
palaces, and fine public walks, which latter were 
crowded with English. English equipages and 
servants are also continually passing in the 
streets ; and so many of the shops are completely 
English, that it is difficult to believe that one is 
in the capital of a foreign nation. The number 
of English generally in Brussels is said to ex- 
ceed twenty thousand. At one of the English 
circulating libraries I procured the " Legend of 
Montrose," which amused Sir Humphry for the 
evening. 

5th. At nine in the evening we left Brussels 
by the Porte de Louvaine, and drove on to Ter- 
vueren, through a fine forest of beech trees ; at 
the extremity of which is situated the summer 
chateau of the Prince of Orange, which, in ex- 
ternal appearance, hardly equals the country re- 
sidence of an English gentleman. From thence 
we proceeded to Louvaine, or Lowen; where 
we only stopped to change horses. The Hotel 
de Ville is one of the finest specimens of gothic 
architecture in the Netherlands; but we could 
only catch a hasty view of it as we drove by and 



AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 13 

went on to Thirlemont, where we dined, and 
after dinner proceeded to St. Troud, which we 
made our resting-place for the night. 

6th. We quitted St. Troud after breakfast, 
in the midst of rain and snow, for Liege, or 
Luttich, where we made no stay, but passed on 
to Battices. Between this last place and Aix- 
la-Chapelle, we crossed the boundary of the Ne- 
therlands, and entered upon the Prussian ter- 
ritory. The custom-house officers were very 
civil; and Count Billow's besonders empfohlen, 
(particularly recommended), written in his own 
hand on Sir Humphry's passport, was of great 
utility. We entered Aix-la-Chapelle in the 
evening; and passing by the new theatre and 
the bath rooms, which are pretty, but small 
buildings, we drove to the grand hotel, which 
was neither grand nor comfortable. Our book 
for this evening was Swift's " Tale of a Tub." 

1th. Left Aachen, (the German name for 
Aix), and passed on to Jiilich, the first Prussian 
fortress. From thence we proceeded to Berg- 
heim : after which we passed over a wide sandy 
flat, rendered in many parts almost impassable, 
by the previous heavy rains. A league or 
two before we reached Cologne, the many and 



14 COBLENTZ. 

gloomy steeples of the once holy city rose to 
view; amongst which, the colossal mass of its 
splendid but unfinished cathedral stood promi- 
nent. The fortifications before the town are 
thickly planted with shrubs, so that from a dis- 
tance they have more the appearance of sloping 
green hills, than walls of defence. Passing over 
numerous drawbridges, and under one of the 
ancient gateways, we drove through many dark 
and narrow streets to the Cour Imperiale. 

Qth. In the morning we left Cologne to the 
protection of its eleven thousand virgins, and 
started for Coblentz. At Bonn, we merely 
changed horses, and drove on to the little post- 
town of Remagen, leaving the summits of the 
celebrated seven mountains, the castled crag of 
Drache?ifels, Rolandseck, and the towers of the 
convent of Nonnenwerth, as yet surrounded only 
by bare and leafless trees, behind us. Here we 
dined ; and then continued our route along the 
banks of the Rhine, which was very turbid and 
swollen, to Andernach, and from thence to Cob- 
lentz. The scenery, which I had formerly be- 
held in all its summer glory, as well as in its 
rich autumnal tints, was now not only shorn of 
its beauty, but enveloped in mist and cloud. 



THE RHINE. 15 

9th. We quitted Coblentz at about eight 
o'clock in the morning, in the midst of a thick 
fog, which in a short time cleared away, and af- 
forded us a most magnificent spectacle; foritcam^ 
rolling down the hills on each bank of the river 
like immense waves, through which the sun- 
beams broke in from every side, till it was at 
last quite dispersed, and unveiled to our view the 
numberless little towns and villages on the banks, 
leaving the Rhine glittering in the rays of the 
sun, like a stream of burnished gold, rushing 
along between its dark and rocky mountains. 
We changed horses at Boppart, and from thence 
drove on to St. Goar, where Sir Humphry has 
determined to stop till to-morrow. After dinner 
he took a ride along the banks of the river, fol- 
lowed by his servant. In the mean while I 
strolled up the hills, and amused myself by 
sketching the old ruins of the castle of Rhein- 
fels, and the river below me in the distance. 
On our return, Sir Humphry told me that he 
had decided to include Heidelberg in his route, 
which he had not at first intended to do, passing 
through Mayence and Mannheim, so that I shall 
in a day or two again see my home. After hav- 
ing read the M Old English Baron" to Sir Hum- 



16 ST. GOAR. 

phry, we retired for the night; he to rest, and 
I to my chamber, where I could not but admire 
the scene around me. It was a beautiful starry 
night, and the lofty rocks opposite my window 
rose as it were from the rolling river beneath, 
awful and gigantic amid the shades of night, till 
their dark outlines, mingling with the more dis- 
tant mountains, were lost in the clear sky. 
Every sound in the village was hushed, and it 
seemed as if even the air itself was lulled to rest 
by the stillness of night. 

" All Heaven and Earth are still — though not in sleep, 
But breathless, as we grow when feeling most ; 
And silent, as we stand in thoughts too deep :— 
All Heaven and Earth are still : from the high host 
Of stars, to the lull'd lake and mountain -coast, 
All is concenter'd in a life intense, 
Where not a beam, nor air, nor leaf is lost, 
But hath a part of being, and a sense 

Of that which is of all Creator and defence." 

10th. Our drive this morning from St. Goar 
to Bingen was cold and rainy, and the Lurley 
rocks, and the wild and rugged banks of the 
Rhine between St. Goar and Oberwesel, looked 
more than usually dreary, the few vines and the 
little vegetation that appear upon them in sum- 



MAYENCE. 



17 



mer not having yet begun to shoot. We quit- 
ted the banks of the Rhine at Bingen, and 
struck across the country through a fine rich 
plain stretching almost as far as the eye can 
reach, and every here and there diversified by 
low hills, to Mayence. Ingelheim, one of the 
numerous residences of Charlemagne, and where 
that monarch once had a magnificent palace, is 
now a little insignificant borough, and the palace 
with its hundred columns from Rome or Ra- 
venna, has vanished, or nearly so, for the slight 
remains that are still standing, shew but little of 
former grandeur. 

At Mayence our passports were demanded 
at the first of the numerous draw-bridges, and 
quickly vise'd. Sir Humphry determined upon 
spending the night here, as I knew that the ac- 
commodations at the Roman Emperor were much 
better than any he would find at Oppenheim or 
Worms, which latter town we could not have 
reached till the night had set in, and Sir Hum- 
phry does not like to travel after simset. The 
streets of this ancient town are for the most 
part narrow, dark, and dirty, with the exception 
of the chief street running from the upper part 



18 MAYENCE. 

of the town towards the Rhine, called die grosse 
bleiche, the great bleaching place, and which is 
a broad and handsome street. The whole ap- 
pearance of the town, the old dom or cathedral, 
with its heavy towers and light pinnacles of red 
stone ; its brazen gates, still bearing the marks 
of the balls of the celebrated siege in 1792; the 
many magnificent houses, often uninhabited or 
turned into shops and cafe's ; the vast but ruinous 
palace of red sand-stone on the Rhine ; the few 
inhabitants one meets with in the streets, — the 
officers and soldiers of the different regiments in 
garrison of course excepted, — plainly tell the 
stranger that Mayence has no longer any pre- 
tension to the splendour it owned under the rule 
of the Ecclesiastical Princes, it being then the 
second ecclesiastical town in Germany ; or even 
during its occupation by the French, who, wher- 
ever they went, were sure to carry with them 
life and spirit. As it has changed for the worse, 
so may it again change for the better, and who 
can say that it may not in a few lustres more 
again nourish as a frontier fortress of France. 

11 th. Quitting Mayence, we drove on along 
the flat and sandy banks of the Rhine, through 



MANNHEIM. 19 

Oppenheim to Worms, from the time of Charle- 
magne and the Frankish kings, till the days of 
Luther, the scene of brilliant fetes, princely tour- 
neys, and solemn diets of the empire, — now a dis- 
mal mass of ruin and desolation. The lofty 
nave and the four steeples of its ponderous 
gothic cathedral, when seen from a distance, 
rise with an imposing grandeur in the level 
plain of the Rhine ; but, on a nearer survey, the 
church itself offers nothing of interest. We 
dined at Frankenthal, a neat and clean little 
town in Rhenish Bavaria, and then drove on 
through Oggersheim to Mannheim, where we 
crossed the Rhine over a fine bridge of boats. 
The streets of this town are remarkably broad 
and clean ; the houses are lofty, and being built 
in small compact squares, all the streets meet at 
right angles, and generally afford at their open- 
ings a very pretty peep at the distant country, 
so that one imagines the surrounding scenery to 
be finer than it really is. The Planken, or chief 
street, traverses the town in a straight line from 
gate to gate, and forms a fine wide walk between 
two rows of acacias, which is chained in from the 
carriage road on each side. 
c 2 



20 HEIDELBERG. 

The four leagues from Mannheim to Heidel- 
berg are through a country, not one spot of 
which is uncultivated; this is backed by the 
finely wooded mountains of the Odenwald, on 
which are still visible the remains of some of 
the many castles which formerly crowned the 
different heights. We reached Heidelberg 
towards evening, and as soon as I had seen 
Sir Humphry comfortably lodged in the hotel 
of the Prince Carl, immediately under the im- 
posing ruins of its far-famed castle, he begged 
me to go and see my mother, he being too 
fatigued to accompany me ; and on my doing so, 
I found that my letter, which should have in- 
formed her of my approach, had not yet reached 
her. 

12th. Sir Humphry finding himself too indis- 
posed either to visit the university, or to receive 
any of its eminent professors, some of whom 
are very desirous to visit him, has determined to 
remain here only till tomorrow ; for it is painful 
to him to know that he is surrounded by scientific- 
men anxious to see and communicate with him, 
and to feel that he is no longer able to enjoy their 
society, or that scientific discussion, which, as it 



SCENERY. 21 

was formerly a source of the highest gratification 
to him, " now," he says, " only serves to make me 
feel that I am but the shadow of what I was" 
It is in vain to combat with such feelings, but 
it is impossible not to regret their existence; 
for could Sir Humphry be persuaded occasion- 
ally to mix more frequently in such society, it 
would certainly rather be of service to him than 
not, for his fine mind is still full of intellectual 
power and elasticity, and he deceives himself in 
thinking otherwise. In the afternoon, as he did 
not feel strong enough to mount the hill to the 
castle, he took a short walk over the bridge along 
the northern banks of the Neckar, and appeared 
much to enjoy the beautiful scenery that en- 
circles this spot, and is indeed every where to be 
found around Heidelberg. From this side one 
sees the ancient ruin with its mouldering towers, 
backed by a lofty amphitheatre of finely wooded 
mountains, with the town standing immediately 
under it, and the broad river rushing through its 
light and airy bridge, often foaming over many 
a rugged rock. The scene at all times is beau- 
tiful and imposing, but when lighted up by the 
rays of the setting sun, which fall with a re- 



22 THE CASTLE. 

splendent glow upon the red-stone walls and 
towers of the castle, the effect produced is very 
striking, and at that hour it is impossible for the 
most indifferent observer to pass the spot with- 
out admiration. The castle itself is now in a 
very dilapidated state, for with the exception of 
the chapel, which is merely a bare and lofty hall, 
there remains scarcely one entire room ; but the 
exterior walls of the quadrangle are nearly per- 
fect, and much of the sculpture that every where 
adorns the ruin is still in high preservation, and 
some of the ruined towers, as such, are very 
beautiful. The gardens too, which, from their 
situation, sweeping as they do around the hill 
on which the castle stands, and abounding in 
fine large trees, are at once commanding and 
beautiful, afford many a delightful walk and 
striking view of the country beneath ; and wan- 
dering amid their risings and descents, one feels 
that here art has been considered as she really is, 
the handmaid, not the mistress of nature's works. 
From some of the terraces one looks directly 
down upon the town, having a fine view beyond 
of the fertile plain between it and Mannheim, 
through which the Neckar is seen winding till it 



THE UNIVERSITY. 23 

joins the Rhine, which, with the distant Voge- 
sian mountains, bounds the view in the west. 

Heidelberg contains about 12,000 inhabitants, 
and has of late years become a favourite resort 
of strangers. The university library is con- 
sidered to be one of the richest in Europe in 
ancient manuscripts, and were the sovereign of 
the state a more liberal patron than he is of 
learning and science, doubtless the museums and 
public institutions would be more liberally en- 
dowed than they are ; there is, however, an ex- 
cellent anatomical museum in the school for 
medicine, and so long as such names as those of 
Thibaut, Tiedemann, Gmelin, Schlosser, and 
various others whose works evince their talent, 
shall be found amonst the list of its professors, 
so long must Heidelberg hold a deservedly high 
rank in the learned and scientific world, and 
open a wide field of advantage and instruction 
to all young men anxious to avail themselves of 
such opportunities ; nor will any impartial judge 
deny, that amongst its students many highly 
honourable examples of talent and application 
are found. 

13th. We this morning bade adieu to Heidel- 



24 HEILBRONN. 

berg, and set off for Neckargemlind. Sir Hum- 
phry very much admired the winding river and 
its picturesque banks, though the woods were 
yet leafless, and the rocks rather bare; whilst I 
could see no spot that did not, in one way or 
another, recall to my mind the many social and 
happy days I had spent in roving through the 
green woods, and among the mouldering castles 
of the Neckar. From Neckargemlind we struck 
across the country to Wiesenbach and Sinsheim, 
and from thence through very pretty but not 
striking scenery to Furfeld, where we entered 
the kingdom of Wiirtemberg, and on to Heil- 
bronn. This old town offers nothing interesting 
save the old square tower in the walls on the 
Neckar, formerly the prison of the celebrated 
Gotz of the Iron Hand, who, it is said, died 
within its walls. The doughty champion will 
probably live in the remembrance of the good 
people of Heilbronn, only so long as the old 
tower which bears the name of the Gotzen 
TJiurm continues to stand ; but the fame of Gotz 
von Berlichingen will never die but with the 
extinction of German literature, handed down 
as it is to posterity by the master-hand of Gothe. 



WEINSBERG. 25 

The drive from Heilbronn to Oehringen is very 
beautiful, over hill and dale, and from valley 
to valley through the mountains. The first 
little village which we passed was Weinsberg, 
and above it, on a hill covered with vineyards, 
are the remains of the castle of Weibertreue 
(Woman's faith.) This spot was the scene of 
the action celebrated in Burger's admired ballad, 
Die Weiber von Weinsberg — The Woman of 
Weinsberg. 

" Wer sagt mir an wo Weinsberg liegt 
Soil seyn ein wack'res Stadtchen," &c. &c. 

the story of which is founded on the following 
fact : — During the time of the deadly feuds be- 
tween the houses of Hohenstaufen and Guelph, 
about the year 1140, Weinsberg was besieged 
and taken by the Emperor Conrad. The town 
and castle had excited his high displeasure for 
having afforded an asylum to his enemy Guelph, 
and he determined to destroy them with fire and 
sword, and said he would only allow the women 
to depart, and take any treasure with them. 

At dawn of day the gates of the town were 
opened, and every woman appeared carrying her 
husband upon her back. Many of his officers, 



26 OEHRINGEN. 

indignant at thus seeing the enemy's garrison 
escape, endeavoured to persuade the Emperor 
to evade his promise, but Conrad replied, " an 
Emperor's faith once pledged teas not to be 
broken;" and he granted them a free pardon, and 
from that time the castle of Weinsberg has 
borne the name of Weibertreue. 

We did not reach Oehringen till eight o'clock ; 
and then found the only decent inn in the town 
in great confusion, owing to the exhibition of a 
cabinet of wax-work, which had attracted all the 
waiters and chambermaids, so that it was with 
great difficulty I could obtain even hot water to 
make our tea. 

14th. We left Oehringen at eight in the 
morning, and arrived at Halle, or Schoneshalle, 
about twelve, passing through some very pretty 
mountainous country. In this part of Wurtem- 
berg there are some coal mines, but the coal seems 
to be of a very inferior quality, a brown coal. 

The female peasantry dress their hair in a very 
singular manner, drawing it back from the fore- 
head, and tying it up in a bunch behind, which 
gives the head a remarkably naked appearance, 
and increases their altogether awkward and un- 



ELLWANGEN. 27 

cou tli air. The town is small and very old, and 
has some considerable remains of ancient fortifi- 
cations. From Halle we had a very long drive 
up-hill and down-hill for five hours, through a 
fertile country well wooded and watered, to Ell- 
wangen, another small town, prettily situated in 
a valley: the hills on the one side are sur- 
mounted by a modern chateau, belonging to the 
King of WUrtemberg; and on the top of those 
opposite stands a fine large church, to which, 
at certain seasons of the year, pilgrims flock in 
numbers from great distances. Before tea I 
strolled round the town, and afterwards read one 
of the " Arabian Nights Entertainments" to Sir 
Humphry, after which we played our usual game 
at ecarte. 

1 5th. Leaving Ellwangen, we passed through 
hilly but barren country, and over the most abo- 
minable roads possible, to Nordlingen, the first 
Bavarian post-town. We were every now and 
then obliged to get out of the carriage from fear 
of being overturned; and the postilion fre- 
quently preferred driving over a newly ploughed 
field to passing along the road. We however 
arrived safely at the post-house; thus accom- 



28 DONAUWORTH. 

plishing six short leagues in about as many 
hours. On driving into the town we were, as 
usual, asked for our passport, which was an 
English one : the officer took it for French, and 
I suppose he had never seen such an one be- 
fore, for he copied the printed title into a paper 
which he gave me, as a permission to enter Ba- 
varia, as follows : — " Permit to pass, &c. &c, 
Lord Dudley, particulier" and I could hardly 
make the man believe that the printed name was 
not that of the person travelling, but that of the 
minister. From Nordlingen we drove to Do- 
nauworth, on the Donau, or Danube; passing 
through Haarburg, a small village, but one of 
the prettiest spots we had seen since we left 
the banks of the Neckar. The church and many 
of the houses are situated on the top of a lofty 
rock, high above the rest of the buildings, and 
the whole scene is strikingly picturesque. The 
Danube at Donauworth is a small and unimpo- 
sing stream. Opposite our inn were two boats 
ready to start for Vienna ; they were of consi- 
derable size, but wholly built of rough deal 
planks. Such boats are chiefly filled with mer- 
chandize, and rarely take passengers, as their ac- 



THE DANUBE. 29 

comodation is very inferior. When they arrive 
at Vienna, they are broken up and sold as old 
wood, the current of the Danube being too rapid 
to admit of boats ascending. We had good ac- 
comodation at the only hotel, the Crab, which is 
out of the town, on the banks of the river ; and 
Sir Humphry determined to remain till tomor- 
row, to see the fishermen cast their nets in the 
morning. 

16th. Sir Humphry did not feel well enough 
to-day to accompany the fishermen, but desired 
them to bring him any fish they might catch; 
they accordingly brought him a schill, the large 
perch of the Danube, (Perca lucioperca, Block,) 
of which Sir Humphry begged me to take a 
drawing. We then dissected it, and afterwards 
had it dressed for dinner, and both of us thought 
it very good, and much resembling cod in taste. 
Sir Humphry now generally prefers dining 
alone, and at a late hour for this part of the 
world, (four o'clock) ; and I, therefore, where I 
find a table a" hote, usually dine at it ; for though 
the business of eating in this country is not one 
of hasty dispatch, or of such trivial importance 
as to leave all the powers awake to conversation, 



30 BLENHEIM. 

yet foreigners who wish to become acquainted 
with the people and manners, as well as to see 
them, will, at all events, understand them much 
better by mixing with them, than by keeping, 
as is so often the case with English travellers, 
to their own rooms. While Sir Humphry dined, 
I took a walk up the Schellenberg, to look at 
the spot from which Marlborough drove the 
French at the celebrated battle of Blenheim ; 
and sitting under an old oak, on the top of the 
hill, I enjoyed the extensive view beneath me. 
Hardly visible in the distance appeared the 
towers of Blenheim ; nearer stood many a small 
village, embosomed as it were in the forests ; and 
the Danube, winding through the woods and 
verdant meadows, now hidden by an interposing 
hill, then again appearing in many a bending 
curve, with here and there a small green island, 
flowed tranquilly on till it reaches the town of 
Donauworth, where it receives the tributary 
waters of the Wernitz, a small river which runs 
through the town. I hastily took a sketch of 
the view, the scene of actions which can never 
be forgotten by the friend of English glory, and 
then returned to Sir Humphry, and in the 



INGOLSTADT. 31 

evening read to him some of the " Arabian 
Nights," and Dryden's beautiful poem " The 
Flower and the Leaf." 

\lth. Crossing over to the right bank of the 
Danube by a small wooden bridge, our road 
passed through many pleasant meadows covered 
with beautiful anemones, interspersed here and 
there with the dark blue gentian, and enlivened 
by numerous herds of cattle. The first poste 
was Bergheim, and from thence to Neuburg and 
Ingolstadt. The church steeples of all the vil- 
lages by which we passed were covered with 
tiles glazed with different colours, which in the 
sunshine have a very brilliant and Chinese ap- 
pearance. Ingolstadt is a small old town, with 
dilapidated fortifications and walls. The only 
inn seemed in a similar condition, and the kitchen 
and some of the rooms being in a state of repair, 
we were obliged to continue our route. On leav- 
ing the town, we crossed over the Danube again 
and drove on to Vohburg. In the distance we 
thought we saw the Salzburg Alps, but we were 
unable to determine with certainty, the clouds 
having the greatest possible resemblance to dis- 
tant snowy mountains. The Danube at Voh- 



3*2 POSTSARI. 

burg is by no means so wide as the Rhine at 
Mannheim, but is much more rapid. We again 
recrossed it, and drove through some marshy 
land, and a small forest of firs, beautifully green, 
to Neustadt, where we remained for the night 
at a most wretched inn. 

The whole country through which we have 
passed appears very populous, but the peasantry 
look wretchedly squalid and poor, and an Eng- 
lish eye is much struck by seeing the women 
constantly at hard work in the fields, and appa- 
rently performing a much greater share of the 
laborious part of their employment than the 
men. 

18^. We left Neustadt in the morning, and 
drove on through pretty and hilly country, 
chiefly covered with fir wood, to Postsari, where 
we came down close upon the Danube, and be- 
held some most beautiful rocky scenery, far 
superior in grandeur to that of the Rhine. Im- 
mense perpendicular masses of grey rock, with 
dark fir-trees here and there forcing themselves 
through the fissures and crevices, form the right 
bank of the Danube at Abach, a small village at 
the foot of a hill, on the top of which stands an 



RATISBON. 33 

enormous round tower, the only remaining ves- 
tige of a large castle which formerly crowned 
the summit. Before entering the village the 
road is hewn through the solid rock, and high 
above the head of the traveller is a gigantic 
Latin inscription, cut in the rock, purporting 
that this work was undertaken and completed 
by Charles Theodor, Elector of Bavaria; two 
colossal lions on pedestals mark the spot which 
was once solid rock. From this little village 
we passed over the hill to Regensburg, or Ra- 
tisbon, which lies in the valley beneath. The 
appearance of this old city from a distance is 
not more imposing than when in it, for it has 
no high towers nor fine prominent buildings. 
We entered it at about one o'clock, through 
an alley of young poplars, on the right of 
which stands a small modern temple, dedicated 
to the memory of the celebrated astronomer, 
Keppler. A light pretty gateway leads into 
dark and narrow streets, at the end of one of 
which was our inn, the Golden Cross, and the 
good accommodation we here found, was not 
rendered the less agreeable from its contrast 
with that of the wretched inn at Neustadt. In 



34 RATISBON. 

the afternoon I walked out with Sir Humphry 
to see the town. The greatest, or rather only 
curiosity it possesses, is the large room in which 
the celebrated Diet of the Empire used to be 
held: the exterior has a miserable appearance, 
and Sir Humphry, instead of going in, went to 
see some fish in a tank, and wished me to ac- 
company him as interpreter. I went in the 
evening again to see the hall of the Diet, but 
it was shut, and the man who shows it was 
not to be found. From the fish-tank we went 
to the bridge over the Danube, which is well 
built of stone, and is entirely paved with large 
flag stones. The river, already of considerable 
breadth, rushes through it with astonishing rapi- 
dity, and turns a number of mills below it. 
We then returned and took our tea, and our 
evening's book was " Palamon and Arcite." 

19^. We quitted Ratisbon at nine in the 
morning, leaving the banks of the Danube to 
our left, and drove on to Eglofsheim, and from 
thence generally through or on the borders of a 
thick and sombre pine forest, through Birkheim 
to Ergolshausen. The cottages in this part of 
Bavaria are usually built of trunks of trees, laid 



THE ISAR. 35 

horizontally one upon another, like the log- 
houses of America; and the roofs are covered 
with shingles, on which are placed large flat 
stones, to prevent their being blown off. The 
better ones have generally some picture, the 
subject of which is taken from the Holy Writ- 
ings, painted on the front; and at Ratisbon I 
saw a " David and Goliath," which covered the 
entire front of a large house three or four stories 
high. At Ergolshausen we were detained whilst 
the carriage was mended; this reparation cost 
eighteen kreuzers, (about sixpence,) and in 
France, for a similar one, we paid five francs. 

When all was put to rights we set off for 
Landshuth, and soon caught a transient glimpse 
of the snowy Alps, rising out of the distant hori- 
zon like clouds into the clouds. The Isar, on 
which Landshuth is situated, exceeds even the 
Danube in rapidity, and well may Campbell 
call it 

" Isar rolling rapidly." 

We had hardly entered the inn when we were 
visited by a heavy thunderstorm, accompanied 
by tremendous hail. 

d2 



36 THE AUSTRIAN ALPS. 

20th. Wishing to see something of the town, 
I took a hasty stroll, early in the morning before 
we started, through the streets, but found little 
worth seeing. The cathedral is, externally, a 
fine old Gothic building, and the principal street 
is respectable. I was much struck with the 
head-dress of the women, which seems to vary 
according to their rank. The peasant girls wear 
large fur caps, whilst the women of a rather 
higher class have upon their heads most extra- 
ordinary gauze or muslin appendages, in all 
sorts of shapes, some like helmets, some pointed, 
and others falling in peaks, but all more or less 
richly embroidered with gold or silver thread. 

On leaving Landshuth we ascended a very 
long and steep hill, and on arriving at the top we 
saw the Austrian Alps, at a distance of seventy 
or eighty miles, bounding the whole horizon 
with a line of shining white, and here and there 
broken by a dark shade of grey ; whilst some 
single perfectly white and shining peaks shone 
high above the floating clouds, whose white 
colour appeared tarnished when compared with 
that of the eternal snow. We drove the greater 
part of the day through pine forests, up hill and 



ALT-NETTING. 37 

down hill ; now perfectly losing sight of the Alps, 
then again from the summit of the next hill catch- 
ing sight of them, apparently not more than ten 
miles off, so distinctly could we trace the vallies 
between the different mountains. We stopped 
to dine at the post-house at Neumarkt, a small 
village, where I could get nothing but a pigeon 
dressed in garlic, and some sausage. Leaving 
this village, we descended from the mountains, 
amid which we had been travelling, into the plain 
which separates them from the Alps, and found 
ourselves, as it were, in front of this colossal 
chain, now brightly illuminated by the glowing 
sun. Towards evening I had hoped to have 
seen the rosy tinge upon the Alps, caused by the 
reflection of the sunbeams upon the snow of the 
summits, but I was disappointed, for they faded 
away into the grey clouds of evening as we 
drove up a very steep but short hill into Neu- 
Netting, a neat little town, in the streets of 
which we saw many pretty women and girls 
knitting before their doors; on the whole, the 
people are much handsomer here than in the 
country we have hitherto passed through. About 
two miles further on we reached Alt-Netting, 



38 ALT-NETTING. 

where we were very well lodged at the post- 
house. Our hostess, a young lass of only seven- 
teen or eighteen, spoke very good French, and 
seemed intelligent and active in the direction of 
her household. 

21st. In the morning, before Sir Humphry 
was up, I went to see a little church on the Platz or 
square before our inn. The arcades surrounding 
it are completely covered with votive pictures, or 
pictures returning thanks to some favourite saint 
for having been delivered from great danger; 
some, for example, for having broken their legs 
or arms instead of their necks, others that their 
friends had been killed and not they, and such 
like. Many of these pictures bear dates of two 
or three hundred years ago, but they are almost 
all mere daubs. The interior of the church is 
also quite covered with paintings, and gold and 
silver offerings, some of the latter apparently of 
great value. On my return to the inn, I asked 
our hostess about this church, and she told me 
that it had been a celebrated place of pilgrimage 
for ages past; that the image of the virgin in it 
bears the date of the twelfth century, and that 
there also are kept embalmed the hearts of the 



AUSTRIA. 39 

sovereigns of Bavaria, Charles Theodore, Maxi- 
milian Joseph, and others. She also informed 
me that there was a convent of nuns, and a 
Capuchin monastery in the town ; some of the 
former I had seen in the church. 

On leaving Alt-Netting, we for the first time 
this year saw cherry-trees in blossom, and on 
the sides of the road there was abundance of 
the pretty blue gentian. The next station, and 
the last in Bavaria, was Marktl. From thence 
we drove on to Braunau, already a wide and 
very rapid river. The black and yellow striped 
posts on the wooden bridge announced to us the 
dominion of Austria; and on entering the town, 
we drove to the custom-house, where, however, 
the officers gave us no trouble, for a letter from 
Prince Esterhazy, with which Sir Humphry was 
furnished, seemed to act as a talisman, producing 
instantaneous civility, with bows and titles 
innumerable. The next paste was Altheim, 
where we found that every thing was to be 
paid for in Austrian money, which at first 
promised to be no slight trouble, though we 
soon found it was an easy matter to re- 
duce it, six Bavarian kreutzers, or six florins, 



40 TRAUN RIVER. 

being' equal to five Austrian ones. It was our in- 
tention to have readied Haag this evening, but 
having a very long and steep hill to cross, the 
night overtook us at Ried, a little village, where 
we were obliged to put up with the accommoda- 
tions of a miserable inn, with bad coffee and 
wretched beds, much to the discomfiture of Sir 
Humphry. 

22nd. We left Ried at about nine, and drove 
through a fine forest of lofty pines to Haag, 
and from thence to Lambach. Wood seems so 
abundant in this country, that not only the in- 
ferior houses are wholly built of it, but even 
the fences between the fields are formed of 
rough deal planks. Lambach is a small insig- 
nificant town on the Traun, which river we 
here saw for the first time : its water is beau- 
tifully clear, and of a bluish-green colour. 
From Lambach we turned off to Vocklabruck, 
along the banks of the Agger, another clear 
mountain stream, winding very prettily through 
a flat valley of the same name. On our ap- 
proach to this little place we beheld the lofty 
Alps, which form the shores of the Traun Lake, 
at a short distance off; and Sir Humphry re- 



THE VOCKLA. 41 

joicecl that lie had at length arrived where he 
might enjoy his favourite amusement of fishing, 
which, but for a thunderstorm, he would this 
very evening have indulged in, at the expence 
of the poor fish in the little river Vockla. 

23rd. Early this morning, Sir Humphry 

begged me in his name to visit Count E , 

who lives at a short distance from Vocklabriick, 
and is proprietor of the fishing right in the 
Agger and Vockla, and request his permission 
for him to fish in these streams ; this the Count 
very graciously granted, and Sir Humphry ac- 
cordingly mounted a pony, and rode down to 
the Vockla, where, however, during the morn- 
ing, he caught but little fish. The afternoon 
was spent in the same pursuit, and we closed 
the evening as usual with reading some of 
Dryden's poems and the "Arabian Nights." 

24=th. In the morning Sir Humphry begged me 
to procure a one-horse chaise for him, in which, 
with his servant, he was driven to the Kammer 
Lake, about ten miles off. I, in the meanwhile, 
strolled about the environs, not finding anything 
interesting in the town; but my walk did not 
prove very agreeable, the weather being so 



42 THE TRAUN LAKE. 

misty that I could gain no view of the neigh- 
bouring Alps, and I was very glad to see Sir 
Humphry return in the afternoon, bringing with 
him a few fish, which were dressed for his din- 
ner. In the evening we read Prior's " Alma," 
but not being pleased with it we soon changed 
it for Pope's " Essay on Man." 

25th. We quitted Vocklabruck at about ten in 
the morning, not at all to my sorrow; and after 
a beautiful drive through fine fir woods and lanes, 
where the hedges were already quite green, we 
arrived at Gmiinden, and beheld a scene which 
surpasses in magnificence any thing I have ever 
yet seen. On one side of the hill down which 
we drove was a wood of tall beeches, the leaves 
just bursting from the bud; on the lower side, 
meadows of the most beautiful green sloped 
down to the town of Gmiinden, which seemed 
to rise out of the bosom of the lake of the same 
name, or, as it is more generally called, the Traun 
Lake. Alps, whose summits were hidden in the 
clouds, and on whose rocky heights nothing was 
seen but the dark black pine, form the banks of 
this large reservoir of water, in some places des- 
cending with precipitous and almost perpendicu- 



THE TRAUN LAKE. 43 

lar steepness into the clear lake, whilst in others 
they are lost in fine meadows and orchards, with 
neat wooden cottages peeping through the trees; 
and on an island in the lake we saw a large cha- 
teau and church, which are joined to the main 
land by a long wooden bridge. The best inn at 
Gmunden, the Ship, is close upon the edge of 
the water, and commands a magnificent view over 
the whole extent of the lake, and every window 
being provided with a little cushion, one may 
enjoy the scene leaning on the window-sill for 
hours, without any detriment to one's elbows. 
Gmunden itself is a pretty clean little town at 
the north end of the lake, exactly on the spot 
where it empties itself into the river Traun with 
an impetuous rush, thus dividing the town into 
two distinct parts, connected by a strong wooden 
bridge built on piles. On the shores of the lake 
are many beautiful small villages, now and then 
seen through the half green trees, and at about 
six miles from Gmunden, apparently at the end 
of the lake, is the town of Traunkirchen, almost 
lost in distance and haziness. The water of 
the lake is beautifully clear, and of a deep blue^ 
green colour. After reading to Sir Humphry 



44 THE TRAUN LAKE. 

in the evening, I spent an hour gazing out upon 
the lake and its alpine shores, partially illumi- 
nated by the moon ; the more distant snowy sum- 
mits seemed like detached clouds, resting as it 
were upon the dark and gloomy masses beneath, 
which threw their long broad shadows over the 
silvery bosom of the lake; while every here and 
there on the surrounding shores, a few twinkling 
lights, seen between the trees, marked the situa- 
tion of a village or country house. 

26th. On awaking this morning, I fancied 
myself on the sea shore, for the first sound I 
heard was the surge of the waters of the lake, 
which had been agitated into light waves by a 
fresh morning breeze. On going to my window 
the scene formed a striking contrast to that of 
yesterday evening ; the darkness and deep 
silence of night had disappeared ; not a cloud 
was to be seen, and the brilliant beams of the 
young sun shone upon numberless boats, flitting 
with their white sails over the glittering waves ; 
whilst in the street beneath stood motley groups 
of peasants lounging about, or awaiting the 
arrival of some boat from the other shore of 
the lake. Sir Humphry rose early, and imme- 



VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. 45 

diately after breakfast we went out to the bridge 
over the Traun, he to fish, whilst I sketched; 
and staid the whole morning beneath the bridge, 
on one of the piers close to the rushing stream. 
The view from this spot is far more extensive 
than that from the inn windows, as from hence 
you see quite to the opposite end of the lake, 
and can discover beyond the promontory, on 
which stands the town of Traunkirchen, the 
houses and spires of Ebensee, as white specks 
against the distant grey mountain; and from 
hence also are seen to great advantage, far 
beyond the mountains of the lake, the distant 
snow-clad summits of the Sclmeeberg and other 
of the Styrian Alps. On my return home I 
found Sir Humphry already there, and that he 
had caught some fine trout, which proved excel- 
lent. In the evening we had a violent storm, 
and I read Green's poem on the Spleen, which 
Sir Humphry does not admire. 

27th. This morning proved rainy, and Sir 
Humphry was in despair, as he had ordered a 
small carriage, intending to go and see the Falls 
of the Traun, about ten miles down the river; 
it cleared up, however, about eleven o'clock, 



46 FALLS OF THE TRAUN. 

and turning out very fine, we set off, Sir Hum- 
phry armed with all his fishing-tackle, and I 
with my sketch-book. Aftter a fine drive along 
the top of the precipitous and highly picturesque 
banks of the Traun, passing by many smaller 
falls and rapids, we reached the inn near the 
great fall, the roar of which is heard at a consi- 
derable distance. A little below the cataract a 
lofty wooden bridge is thrown over the Traun, 
and from beneath it one beholds a truly sublime 
scene. The greater part of the river here pre- 
cipitates itself from a height of nearly fifty feet, 
in one immense mass of foam over the impeding 
rocks, which are of considerable breadth. Thick 
clouds of mist are continually rising from the 
boiling pool, and the spectator standing within 
a few feet of the descending river is completely 
wetted in an instant. In the centre of the river 
stands a large rock, from which three smaller 
falls throw themselves into the greater pool; 
and again, higher up on the right is another 
large cascade, where the water falls in a perpen- 
dicular sheet between two rocks, which serve as 
a support to a small wooden house that has been 
erected over the fall. Below the bridge the 



FALLS OF THE TRAUN. 47 

whole river is one white stream of foam, with 
dark black rocks here and there jutting out of it. 
The banks are formed of lofty rocks (chiefly 
pudding-stone,) and are topped with woods of 
dark black pine. Boats descending the river avoid 
the danger of this cataract by means of a small 
canal, which has been cut through the right bank 
of the river in a sloping direction from the fall, 
and again joins the river at some distance below 
it. This canal is immediately filled with water 
by raising a sluice gate close to the fall, and the 
boat keeping near the shore is very easily guided 
into it, and descends quickly and safely. Sir 
Humphry finding the fish would not bite, we 
returned home, after spending a short hour in 
this sublime and romantic spot. The drive back 
to Gmimden is finer than the drive to the Falls, 
the river presenting more beautiful openings and 
turnings, and the lake gradually rising into view. 
In the evening Sir Humphry determined not 
to remain at the baths of Ischl, about twenty 
miles distant, as he had intended doing, but to 
proceed to Laybach, three hundred miles off, as 
he thought the snipe-shooting, which he much 
wished to enjoy, would not yet be over there. 



48 EBENSEE. 

28th. We left Gmlinden at eight, crossing 
over the lake in a large boat. The view of 
Gmimden from the lake is beautiful, and with 
its gently sloping green hills and woods in the 
back ground, and its neat white houses, rising 
as it were out of the water, forms a strong con- 
trast with the rugged mountains which surround 
the lake on every other side. Whilst crossing 
over, the scene continually changes, the Alps 
presenting themselves from different sides ; and 
on turning the promontory on which Traun- 
kirchen is situated, we entered as it were upon 
another small lake, and discovered the town of 
Ebensee, about three miles off, quite at the end 
of it. The Traun here flows into the lake, and 
often brings with it a considerable quantity of 
wood, which is collected by a long cordon, 
formed of the trunks of fir-trees joined together, 
and drawn across the end of the lake. Ebensee 
has very large salt-works, which afford employ- 
ment to the greater number of its inhabitants. 
Post-horses were here again put to the carriage, 
and we drove on along the banks of the Traun 
through most enchanting scenery to Ischl, and 
from hence to Aussee, over a very steep moun- 



UPPER AUSTRIA. 49 

tain, on the sides of which I found, whilst walk- 
ing up it, many of our prettiest garden flowers, 
cyclamens, anemones, &c. &c. After ascending 
for an hour and a half, we entered Styria, 
passing the boundary of Upper Austria, and 
came to the snow, through which we pursued 
our way for half an hour more, when we found 
ourselves on the top of the pass, between 4000 
and 5000 feet above the level of the sea, en- 
vironed by Alps clad in deep and for the 
most part eternal snow. Our road down was 
cut through the snow, which was much deeper 
on this side than on the other. Aussee is a 
little town, beautifully situated at the bottom of 
a valley, surrounded on all sides by gigantic 
rocks ; it also has, like Ebensee, extensive salt- 
works, the salt for which is furnished from the 
salt-mines in the adjacent mountains. 

29th. We quitted Aussee this morning, and 
drove on through Mitterndorf, Steinach, and 
Liezen, our road lying through beautiful Alpine 
country, sometimes hilly, and always at a great 
elevation. Between Liezen and Rothenmann 
we passed the first old feudal castle that we 
have seen in this part of Austria; it is called 

E 



50 GOITRES OF THE ALPS. 

Wolkenstein, and is finely situated upon a hill, 
between rocks and woods. Most of these people 
have large goitres, the cause of which it is perhaps 
difficult to ascertain with certainty. Sir Hum- 
phry seemed inclined to attribute their presence 
to the calcareous earths which the waters of 
these vallies may hold in solution. This opinion 
has been also supported by many scientific 
medical men ; still Sir Humphry seemed to 
think there was reason in my observation, that 
it might rather be the effect of climate and 
damp ; for in a mountainous country that is 
also full of streams, the inhabitants are always 
exposed to strong currents of damp and chilly 
air at one season, and to the extreme of heat in 
the summer months, when the rays of the sun 
are reflected from the rocky mountains, and, as 
it were, concentrated upon the lower vallies; 
for were it from the water, would it not, in an 
equal degree, affect the upper classes, which, I 
have observed in the neighbourhood where I 
have resided, is not the fact; for though they 
are subject to this disease, they are by no means 
so much so as the poorer inhabitants of the vil- 
lages in the Odenwald, for instance; and the 



GAISHORN. 51 

water of many of these parts has been proved to 
be more than usually free from earths and salts. 
Between Rothenmann and Gaishorn, at which 
latter village we passed the night, we saw a peat 
moor, a very rare thing in this country. I think 
I shall never forget the evening we spent here, 
in one of the most miserable dirty little village 
inns in Europe. When we drove up to the 
door we heard within the sound of loud and 
merry music, and the noise of a number of 
people dancing and clapping their hands; this 
all of a sudden ceased, and out rushed a whole 
troop of peasants of both sexes to see the stran- 
gers. The master of the inn, a young man, 
led us up a tumble-down staircase to the first 
and only story, where we found three rooms in 
no very inviting state: the walls were dirty, 
bare, and ragged; the beds almost as bad; 
the furniture looked as if it had been stand- 
ing there for a hundred years, and every thing 
smelt of tobacco-smoke. Sir Humphry could 
scarcely make up his mind to remain in such a 
place, yet it was too late to attempt to proceed, 
as he did not like to travel after dark; so I was 
obliged to do my best, and arrange our accom- 
e 2 



wwmai 



0'2 WEDDING FETE. 

modation for the night, I being the only one 
who could make myself understood, and this 
with no small difficulty, the people here speak- 
ing the most wretched Austrian dialect. When 
I had at last got dinner served, or rather supper, 
which we had luckily brought with us, and had 
ordered chickens to be killed to take with us to- 
morrow, got out sheets to be aired, &c. &c, none 
of which orders I could get attended to with 
any regularity, as every body was running off 
to the dance, which in the meanwhile had re- 
commenced with as much noise as before, I 
attempted to read the " Arabian Nights" to Sir 
Humphry, but he found it impossible to hear, 
and was obliged soon to retire to his bed. Before 
I followed his example I went to take a peep at 
the dance, and asked the host what all this rout 
was about ? He told me it was the conclusion of 
a wedding fete which had been celebrated the 
day before, and his house having been engaged 
for the purpose, he could not put an end to their 
merriment. The dance which these peasants 
were enjoying, the national dance of Styria, was 
a slow waltz, not devoid of grace, with various 
tours performed by four couple, and which were 



KRAPATH. 53 

always preceded by a loud clapping of hands 
and stamping with the feet. Had we arrived 
yesterday we should have seen the fete in its 
glory, and all the guests in their gay and motley 
apparel, which would have been an entertaining 
sight, but the bride and bridegroom not being 
present this day, their friends were footing it 
merrily in their every-day dress. Having par- 
taken of some of the remains of the wedding 
cakes, I retired to bed, but not to sleep, the 
party continuing their revels and noise till a 
very late hour. 

30th. We could not set off this morning till 
after nine, one of the bolts of the carriage want- 
ing repair, which I was obliged to superintend, 
the workmen understanding nothing of the build 
of an English carriage. We then set out and 
drove on to Krapath, where our chickens proved 
very acceptable, the post-house offering nothing 
but stale brown, or rather black bread and sour 
wine. We passed to-day another old castle on 
the mountains, which latter, though still in some 
parts covered with snow, already begin to lose 
their rocky and alpine appearance, and have a 
more rounded form. The day was warm and 



54 KLAGENFURTH. 

very dusty. From Krapath we drove on to Ju- 
denburg, a considerable town on the top of a 
hill, but which we did not enter till long after 
sunset. 

May 1st From Judenburg we went on 
through Unzmarkt, to Neumarkt, in Carinthia; 
and from thence through some beautiful vallies 
to Friesach, a small town, where we passed the 
night at a very good inn. Upon the hill above 
the town, stand the remains of an extensive old 
castle, but we arrived too late to admit of my 
visiting it. 

2nd. We left Friesach early, and went on 
to St. Veit, and from thence to Klagenfurth, 
the capital of Carinthia. Before us in the dis- 
tance appeared another range of lofty snowy 
Alps, which form the boundary between this 
country and Carniola. Between St. Veit and 
Klagenfurth we met a post carriage, and the 
postilions insisted in spite of all remonstrance 
upon changing horses, alleging as a reason 
that we should find none at Klagenfurth. On 
driving to the post, which is a very fine hotel, 
we found upon enquiry that the postilions 
were in the right, and that they are permitted 



KIRSCHENTHEUR. 55 

to change horses when they know that there 
are none at the next station. Klagenfurth ap- 
pears to be a very respectable town, with broad 
and clean streets, and one or two fine open 
squares. We stopped here to dinner, and then 
went on to Kirschentheur, a small village lying 
at the foot of the Lobel, one of the chain of 
Alps which we had seen in the morning, and 
over which the high road from Carinthia to Car- 
niola passess. We had not long left Klagen- 
furth when we again met with another carriage, 
and were stopped and deprived of our horses, 
which not a little irritated Sir Humphry, for 
we this time got instead of our three only two, 
and neither of these having a saddle, and our 
carriage being without a front dicky, the pos- 
tilion was obliged to walk to the next station. 
Sir Humphry had hoped to have crossed the 
Lobel to-night, but on arriving at Kirschen- 
theur, we found it was too late to think of it ; 
and we therefore remained at' the post-house, 
where we found ourselves tolerably comfortable. 
3rd. Our preparations for departure this morn- 
ing seemed to indicate a very laborious route, 
for the carriage was provided with six horses, 



56 LOBEL ALPS. 

two postilions, and two drags. We started at 
seven, and after a drive of half an hour arrived 
at the foot of the Lobel Alp, or, to speak more 
correctly, at the foot of a lesser mountain, which 
lies before the Alps, to the summit of which we 
ascended by an excellent road, in many places 
cut through the limestone rock. From the top, 
already at a considerable elevation, we looked 
down upon the road before us, which appeared 
like beautiful terraces built one above the other, 
and which lay so perpendicularly under our feet, 
that it seemed almost impossible to reach the 
lowest without imminent danger. The drags, 
however, were put on, and we all arrived safely 
upon the last terrace, which is formed of a noble 
and lofty stone arch, thrown across a very deep 
ravine. We then proceeded through a beauti- 
ful valley formed of magnificent rocks, crowned 
with woods of different descriptions, above which 
appeared the white fields of snow. We at last 
reached the base of the Lobel itself, and began 
the ascent of it, which occupied nearly four 
hours. The road, which is everywhere excel- 
lent, and is kept in very good order, winds 
upwards in a continual zig-zag till it reaches the 



ALPINE SCENERY. 57 

summit, where an opening is hewn through the 
solid rock, from whence a most extensive and 
magnificent view presents itself to the eye of 
the traveller just arrived from below; one seems 
to look out upon a vast plain, but this plain is 
formed of the summits of lesser mountains, all 
beautifully wooded, whilst nearer on each side is 
a long chain of rocky Alps, whose crests are 
covered with snow, and the road in front is seen 
winding through a deep valley till it is lost in 
the woods. 

Upon these Alps the varied progress of vege- 
tation is distinctly marked; first appears the 
beech now just burst into leaf, reaching to a 
height of about 4000 feet; then follow the dark 
pine and fir, whose sombre tints contrast finely 
with the beautiful green of the lower woods; 
and again above these the lowly heath appears, 
bordering upon bare and rugged rocks, or upon 
fields of eternal snow. 

On the road we met with very little snow, 
and this only near the summit of the pass; on 
arriving here our three extra horses were taken 
off, and locking both the hinder wheels, we 
began the descent ; this is much steeper than 



58 



l.AYBACH. 



the ascent from the other side, and from the 
top one sees terrace lying below terrace, till 
they reach the valley. We arrived safely at 
the bottom, having, however, with some diffi- 
culty avoided running over a drunken man, who 
was lying fast asleep in the middle of the road. 
We then drove on through the valley, always 
down hill, to Neumarkt, in Carniola, into which 
province we had entered on the summit of the 
Lobel; it is a small bourg, beautifully situated 
in a dell, and completely surrounded by moun- 
tains; it is the first station after leaving Kir- 
schentheur, and we reached it at about two 
o'clock, so that we had occupied seven hours 
in the passage of the Lobel. After dining here 
we went on to Krainfurth, a pretty town, and 
of considerable size, on the river Save or Sau. 
The evening being fine, Sir Humphry went out 
to fish, but caught nothing. 

4th, We left Krainfurth at eight, and arrived, 
after a pleasant but, as usual, silent drive, at 
Laybach about twelve, and have taken up our 
quarters at Detella's inn, which however is not 
the first, as the Savage, and the City of Trieste, 
are each of them better hotels, and are more 



THE PEOPLE. 59 

pleasantly situated. Sir Humphry? however, 
chooses Detella's, in consequence, he says, of 
its being the house in which he was ten years 
ago, as well as in the year 1827, when he was 
seriously ill there, and received great attention 
from some of the innkeeper's family. 

5th. — 17th. Sir Humphry generally goes out 
shooting the whole day, and often brings home 
quails and landrails; but the snipes are rare. 
I seldom accompany him on these excursions, 
as he is not fond of a second gun, and I can be 
of no use, as he always takes a game-keeper 
with him besides his servant. After dinner he 
usually goes out fishing for an hour or two, and 
in the evening, after I have read to him, we 
generally play a game at ecarte. 

We are here in the heart of Carniola, and it 
seems as if we were already at the end of Ger- 
many, for the greater part of the people are 
Servians, and appear to be as different in their 
manners and habits as in their language from the 
northern Germans; the peasants are servile to 
their superiors, boorish and uncivil towards 
strangers, and ignorant to an extreme. The 
only language which they imderstand is the 



60 THE LANGUAGE. 

Sloioenian or Krainerisch, wliicli is said to bear 
great affinity to the Russian; and I am told that 
when the Russian troops were in this part of 
Europe, they and the peasants were on very 
good terms, as they mutually understood each 
other. The sound of this language is not hard 
or unpleasant, with the exception of one or two 
letters, which are not met with in most European 
languages ; those who understand German and 
Krainerisch, inform me that the latter language 
possesses equal compass and power with the 
former. The higher and middling classes mostly 
speak German, and often Italian, and are polite 
and friendly in their manners. 

The town of Laybach, though of a consider- 
able size, and with a population of about 15,000 
inhabitants, offers nothing interesting. It is 
divided into two parts by the river Laybach, a 
slow and usually turbid stream of no great 
breadth. Four or five wooden bridges unite the 
two parts of the town ; they are broad and appear 
like the continuation of the streets, being shut in 
on both sides by rows of shops, so that the 
passenger is not aware that he is crossing the 
river. The streets are generally narrow and 



DEPARTURE FROM LAYBACH. 61 

dark, and of the churches, which are numerous, 
the episcopal church is the first. On a hill above 
the town are the remains of the ancient citadel, 
now only used as a prison. The view from 
hence is fine and extensive, overlooking a vast 
plain, bounded on one side by the lofty chain of 
the Carinthian Alps, and on the other by lesser 
mountains, covered with one continuous and 
immense wood, the ancient Hyrcinian forest, 
which stretches on almost to the frontiers of 
Turkey ; nearer to the town are a great number 
of marshes, the theatre of Sir Humphry's daily 
sport. The garrison is considerable, and both 
the officers and soldiers are fine men, and look 
very well in their white and light blue uniforms. 

18th. We quitted Laybach this morning, and 
Sir Humphry intends returning to Ischl, but 
by a different route to the one we formerly 
followed. He would certainly have prolonged 
his stay in Laybach, and have continued his 
shooting and fishing for some time longer, in 
spite of the weather, which begins to be already 
very warm, had he not received intimation from 
the police that he could not at present continue 
to shoot, this being the breeding season. A 



62 THE RIVER SAVE. 

pretty little pony, which Sir Humphry bought a 
few days ago for the trifling sum of five pounds, 
is tied behind the carriage, and runs after it. 
We followed our old road to Krainburg, where 
we turned off into the Sau-thal or Valley of the 
Save ; along the banks of which river we drove 
on to Saphnitz, a small village of only a few 
houses, where they seem very rarely to see 
strangers, for the post-house was not even pro- 
vided with either butter or cheese. The valley 
between this place and Assling becomes more 
and more beautiful and sublime as we advance. 
On one side are barren and bleak rocks, rearing 
their snow-clad summits into the clouds; and 
here and there the eye catches a glimpse of one 
of the ancient passes over the mountains, formed 
by the Romans, and which have probably been 
often trodden by Trajan and his legions during 
the wars of that emperor in this part of Ger- 
many; on the other, or left side of the valley, 
the mountains are lower, and seem to glory in 
the beauty and luxuriance of their beech woods, 
through whose foliage rooks of grey limestone 
are often seen jutting out. The clear blue 
waters of the Save run through the middle of 



WOCHAIN. 63 

the valley, receiving in their course many small 
tributary streams on both sides. Near Assling 
the contrast becomes less striking ; the valley 
seems to close, the rocks and woods are more 
intermixed, and beyond them, in the distance, 
are discovered the snowy peaks of the Terglon 
and Skerbina, two lofty mountains in the district 
of Wochain. Assling is a pretty little village on 
the Save, almost embosomed in wood. To the 
left, on entering, is a large iron foundery, and 
also the remains of an unfortunate chain bridge, 
which had given way upon the first trial. The 
post-house, where we stopped for the night, is a 
very good inn, and the host remarkably civil. 

19^. Sir Humphry wishing to see the lake of 
Veldes, the lake of Wochain, and the source 
of the Save, which all lie out of the high road 
in the district of Wochain, he determined to 
make a tour for a day or two into this wild and 
remote country, a part of Austria rarely visited 
by strangers. We were told at Assling, that 
the roads were in many places too bad and too 
narrow to admit of our passing in the travelling 
carriage, and Sir Humphry, therefore, hired a 
small caleche, in which we set out. We crossed 



64 LAKE OF VELDES. 

the Save by a very precarious bridge, built of 
wood, exceedingly narrow, without any railings, 
and with a floor formed of the trunks of fir-trees, 
cut into logs and laid parallel to each other. 
We then went over a steep mountain, and drove 
on for about two hours in a valley, on the sides of 
which the trees and rocks were so picturesquely 
blended, that it would be difficult to say which 
of the two contributed most to the beauty of the 
landscape. At the end of the road, on driving 
down a hill, the lake of Veldes opened upon us. 
This lake is on a much smaller scale, and totally 
different from the Traun-See, and to many would 
perhaps appear more beautiful. At the bottom 
of the hill, near the lake, lies the village of 
Veldes, with its church steeple and a few of 
the houses peeping out from between the trees ; 
above the church an enormous lofty rock rises 
perpendicularly out of the waters of the lake, 
bearing on its top an old imperial castle, to 
which on the land side a pathway is seen wind- 
ing up through the wood. In the centre of the 
lake is a small island, completely covered with 
trees of the most brilliant green, in the midst of 
which and high above them is seen the steeple 




GG 



[3 



FEISTRITZ. 65 

of a church, with the roofs of a few houses. 
The length of this lake is between three and 
four miles, but its breadth is considerably less ; 
the nearer shores are formed by noble mountains 
covered with fields, meadows, and fine beech 
woods, behind which to the right appear the 
snowy peaks of the Wochain Alps. Driving 
through the village and around the lake, we 
entered into the beautiful valley of the Wochain- 
Save, a small but beautifully clear stream, of an 
emerald green colour. After stopping for some 
time for Sir Humphry to fish, we drove on to Wo- 
chain- Villach, a wretched little village, where we 
dined upon the produce of Sir Humphry's sport. 
Not a soul in the place spoke a word of German 
or any other language except their Slowenian, so 
I was e'en obliged to make use of our Assling 
coachman as interpreter. After dinner we went 
on through the same magnificent valley along 
the banks of the Wochain- Save to Feistritz, 
a large village, chiefly belonging to Baron 

Z , of Laybach, who also possesses very 

large iron and steel-hammers near the village. 
We were received very politely at his Schloss 
or country house, by his steward, to whom the 

F 



66 WOCHAIN LAKE. 

innkeeper of Assling had given us a letter, the 
Baron himself, with whom Sir Humphry was 
personally acquainted, and on whom I had 
called in his name whilst at Laybach, being 
absent. The Schloss is old and in bad repair, 
but we were very comfortably lodged, and con- 
trived to sleep in spite of the noise of the ham- 
mers which were at work the whole night, and 
caused the surrounding ground and houses to 
tremble as if shaken by an earthquake. 

20th. We set out early this morning for the 
Wochain lake, and as we drove along the banks 
of the Save, the country became at every mile 
more and more romantic ; and upon arriving at 
the spot where the river issues from the lake, it 
seems to have reached the highest pitch of wild 
grandeur. Barren rocks, from four to six thousand 
feet high, rise up to the clouds, in which they 
hide their lofty snow-clad peaks. The highest 
of all, visible from this side of the lake, is the 
Skerbina.* The south side of the lake, round 
which the road runs, is finely wooded, and here 



* This word means in Krainerisch, a rotten or broken tooth, and 
is applied in this sense to the jagged summits of the mountain. 



SOURCE OF THE WOCHAIN-SAVE. 67 

and there noble masses of light grey rock rise 
abruptly out of the blue water, contrasting finely 
with the dark pines which crown their summits. 
The shores of the north side are formed of 
sloping meadows and hills, beyond which rise 
those enormous walls of rock seen on approaching 
the lake. Sir Humphry crossed over the lake in 
a boat, in order to visit the Savitza, or the source 
of the Wochain-Save, a lofty cascade, just seen 
at the western end of the lake like a glittering 
silver thread among the grey rocks. I drove 
round the banks as far as was practicable in the 
carriage, and then walked on and met Sir Hum- 
phry at the end of the lake, George following 
with the pony for him to mount on leaving the 
boat. We then proceeded for about three miles 
through fields, over rocks and stones, and the 
dry beds of mountain torrents, till the road be- 
came too bad for the pony. Sir Humphry then 
dismounted, and taking my arm, proceeded, with 
the boatman as a guide, for about a mile further, 
when we reached a frail wooden bridge cast 
over the foaming Save. Here Sir Humphry 
said he would go no further, but wait with 
George, who led the pony, till I returned from 
f2 



68 SPLENDID CASCADE. 

the source. I and the guide, therefore, went 
on up the mountain, climbing over rocks and 
fallen trees, where no vestige of a path was to 
be traced, till we came to the foot of a high and 
mouldering scaffold, which the guide told me, in 
as good German as he could, had been erected 
some years ago to enable the Archduke John to 
gain a fine view of the fall. Having mounted 
it by a tottering ladder, I found myself in full 
front of the cascade, which gushed some hun- 
dred feet above, out of the side of one of those 
enormous mountains of rock which we had seen 
from the other end of the lake, and rushed with 
a deafening roar into an abyss below, invisible 
from the spot on which I stood ; I made signs 
to the guide that I wished to get down to the 
foot of the fall, but he shook his head, and ap- 
peared never to have been there, nor to like to 
go. The noise was so tremendous, that it was 
impossible to hear any thing he said ; but wish- 
ing, if possible, to reach the bottom, I determined 
to trust to my own hand and foot, and after a 
dangerous descent over the wet and slippery 
rocks, I found myself close to the pool, into 
which the descending, but often-broken column 



SCENERY. 69 

of water precipitates itself. The height of the 
fall must be nearly four hundred feet, and from 
the transparency and icy coldness of the water, 
and its gushing out of the middle of a perpendi- 
cular wall of rock, which exhibits no trace of 
vegetation, except here aud there a stunted fir- 
tree thrusting itself through a crevice, it is pro- 
bably the exit of a subterraneous lake, confined 
in the interior of the mountain, and supplied 
from the snows of the still loftier summits. In 
spite of the clouds of spray and foam, which fell 
like a continual rain, I took a rapid sketch of 
the scene before me, and then returned to the 
guide, whom I had left upon the scaffolding, 
and who told me that he had descended a part of 
the way, shouting after me, till he was afraid to 
go any farther, nor had he ever been at the foot 
of the fall. In the rock above the scaffold- 
ing is engraved a short Latin inscription, by 

Baron Z , in honour of Prince John. 

The view from this spot, looking towards the 
lake, is exceedingly beautiful and picturesque, 
presenting to the eye a scene very different 
from the one we beheld at the opposite end of 
the lake. The immense mountains of rock, 



70 SCENERY. 

from which the Save takes its rise, extend on 
each side in a wide and lofty amphitheatre, till 
they gradually lose their wildly sublime charac- 
ter, giving place to mountains of lesser height, 
and of a softer and more undulating form, beau- 
tifully covered with fine green beech woods, now 
and then relieved by a dark forest of pines, or 
by the lighter shades of the bare limestone rocks. 
Far below the spectator lies the tranquil lake, 
with its varied shores, partly wooded, partly 
fields and meadows, through which the Save, 
after having pursued its foaming course through 
the woods below the Savitza, is seen to wind, 
till it mixes its clear waters with those of the 
deeper coloured lake. The only traces of human 
habitations are two deserted huts, at some little 
distance from the lake, for the village of Al- 
thammer, the only one in the vicinity of this 
lake, is situated quite at the extremity of it, and 
is not visible from this point. Upon returning 
to the little bridge, I found that Sir Humphry 
had left it, and on reaching the lake, the boat- 
man who had conducted him across it told me 
he had gone round the lake to Althammer in 
the carriage. I accordingly was rowed over to 



SINGULAR RAINBOW. 71 

the village, and met him just arrived, after 
having fished for half an hour in the lake. 
He seemed pleased by the account I gave him 
of the Savitza, and though he regretted he had 
not seen it, he was well satisfied in having 
given up the attempt ; and he said he was con- 
vinced he could not have borne the fatigue. 
Althammer is merely a collection of iron and 
steelworks, with the requisite habitations of the 
workmen, and is also the property of Baron 

Z . We dined with the directors, who treated 

us very civilly, and afterwards drove back to 
Feistritz, where we did not arrive till almost 
night, Sir Humphry often stopping on the road 
to fish. 

2lst We quitted Feistritz early this morn- 
ing, and returned by the same beautiful valley 
through which we had before passed. Sir Hum- 
phry caught fish enough upon our way to fur- 
nish us with another dinner at Wochain-Villach, 
and between this village and the lake of Veldes 
we witnessed a most beautiful atmospheric phe- 
nomenon. It commenced with a fine rainbow, 
which in a few minutes concentrated itself upon 
one of the finely wooded mountains in the valley, 



7*2 ASSLING. 

and here displayed the most beautiful prismatic 
colours possible; at the base blue, then red, 
then green, never extending beyond the out- 
line of the mountain, and through these colours 
we could still plainly descry the dark green of 
the trees. It was on the whole the most splen- 
did kind of rainbow I had ever beheld, and Sir 
Humphry said he had never seen such an one 
before. It lasted for about five minutes, then 
gradually disappeared, and proved the forerunner 
of a very heavy rain, which began to fall just 
as we entered Assling. 

22nd. The morning was exceedingly cloudy, 
and upon leaving Assling we did not expect to 
see much of the country before us, but about ten 
o'clock it cleared up, and afforded us a view of 
the same kind of beautiful scenery as that below 
Assling, though growing wilder and more ro- 
mantic as we ascended the valley. Kronan is a 
small bourg between Assling and Wurzen, and 
the glen, at the entrance of which it is situated, 
seems to be the finest in the whole valley, 
although the tops of the higher mountains were 
obscured by huge masses of cloud. We here 
met many hundreds of pilgrims, of both sexes, 



WURZEN. 73 

travelling in companies; some returning, some 
going to Mount Lusliari, a lofty mountain about 
six leagues beyond Wurzen, where there is a 
famous shrine of the Virgin. Those who were 
returning were all singing hymns of joy at hav- 
ing been absolved from their sins ; whilst those 
who were going walked in silence, many bearing 
serious and often mournful countenances. 

Wurzen is a wretched little village, a collec- 
tion of a few dozen of wooden huts, situated about 
two thousand feet above the level of the sea, at 
the foot of a pass which leads from Carniola into 
Carinthia, similar to that of the Lobel, but by 
no means so elevated. The post-house is tole- 
rable, and the view from the windows magnifi- 
cent, so much so, that Sir Humphry requested 
me to take a sketch of it for Lady Davy. The 
master of this inn is so remarkably civil that Sir 
Humphry has determined to stay for a day or 
two, and to make an excursion to the source of 
the Isonzo, which we are told is about twenty 
miles from Wurzen. In the afternoon Sir 
Humphry went out to fish, and I to examine 
the source of the Wurzen- Save, which rises 
about two miles above the village, and is of a 



74 THE WURZEN-SAVE. 

character very different from the Savitza, or 
source of the Wochain-Save. The river here 
flows from a large pond, which appears perfectly 
insulated, lying in the midst of fields, at the end 
of a dry water-channel coming from one of the 
lateral vallies. The water in the pond is ex- 
ceedingly clear, and at the bottom towards the 
centre, one discovers a number of very large 
holes, through which the water rises mixed with 
a great quantity of air, producing a constant 
ebullition on the surface of the middle of the 
pond, the water of which is perfectly cold.* 
After leaving the pond, the Wurzen-Save winds 
through the valley as a beautiful clear mountain 
stream, passing by Kronan, Assling, and Rad- 
mansdorf, where it receives the Wochain-Save, 
flowing from the lake of Wochain. These 
imited branches are then called the Save, and 
the river flows on through the valley of the same 
name to Krainburg; it afterwards passes near 
Laybach, where it receives the river of that 



* I was afterwards led to believe that this pond or small lake is not 
the real source of the Wurzen-Save, as will be seen in the following 
pages. 



LAKE OF WEISENFELS. 75 

name with many other smaller streams, and rolls 
on, already a considerable river, through Car- 
niola, passes by Agram, traverses Croatia, and 
then forms the boimdary between Austria and 
Turkey till it reaches Belgrade, where it mixes 
its mighty and rapid waters, swollen to a great 
size by a hundred tributary streams, with those 
of the Danube, and rolls with it into the Black 
Sea. 

23rd. Sir Humphry going out to-day to shoot 
in the marshes near the river, I went to see the 
lake of Weisenfels, about six miles off, and had 
a famous mountain ramble. This lake is not 
large, but beautifully clear and highly pic- 
turesque ; it lies at the foot of the Mannhardt, 
a stupendous mountain covered with eternal 
snow. I took a slight sketch of the lake, and 
after spending an hour or two upon its beautiful 
and sunny banks, I returned to Wurzen. After 
recounting what I had seen in my ramble to 
Sir Humphry, we spent our evening as usual 
with cards and reading. 

2£th. We left Wurzen this morning in a 
little carriage, and drove over very bad roads 
up the valley to Tarvis, a small and old town, 



76 RAIBL. 

through which the high road from Italy to Ca- 
rinthia and Vienna passes. The only manufac- 
tures of the town appear to be of iron and steel. 
We here took another road to the left, up the 
valley of Raibl, along the banks of a foaming 
mountain torrent, till we reached the little vil- 
lage of the same name, where we arrived about 
twelve o'clock. Raibl lies at the foot of the 
Konigsberg, a lofty mountain containing very 
productive lead mines, and is only inhabited 
by miners. There is a small but very decent 
inn in the village ; immediately in the front 
of it rises a lofty Alp of very singular form, its 
rocky and barren summit being split into five 
rounded peaks or cones. Whilst Sir Humphry 
took a luncheon, I drew a sketch of the place, 
and we then set out for the source of the Isonzo, 
which the postmaster of Wurzen, who accom- 
panied us as a guide, assured us was at a short 
distance up the mountain, and that the road to 
it was very good. Sir Humphry proceeded in 
this carriage whilst I walked up the mountain 
with the postmaster, and a friend of his from 
Raibl, neither of whom seemed to know much 
about the Isonzo or its source, for after a long 



THE ISONZO. 77 

walk they conducted us to a valley in the 
middle of which ran a small stream, which the 
postmaster declared was the Isonzo. This, 
however, both to Sir Humphry and me, ap- 
peared impossible on comparing its situation 
and direction with that of the Isonzo, as traced 
on our maps, and after a long discussion with 
the postmaster and his friend, the latter ad- 
mitted they were wrong-, and that it was the 
Pless, or Fletzbach, a little mountain river, a 
tributary stream of the Isonzo, whose source, 
from all the information we could gain, lies in 
a very different direction, at least ten miles off, 
and in a very wild and barren country. 

Sir Humphry was sadly disappointed and very 
angry with the postmaster, who had assured us 
at Wurzen that he was well acquainted with the 
source. We had however enjoyed some very 
fine wild scenery, and had seen many beautiful 
small cascades leaping from the mountains. On 
our road we passed a knoll of ground where the 
grass grew more luxuriantly than any where else, 
and we learnt that this spot had been the grave 
of some hundred Austrians, who had bravely de- 
fended a small fort which stood here, against the 



78 THE RAIBL-SEE. 

French ; of the whole garrison three or four 
only escaped the slaughter. At that time the 
French had possession of the whole surrounding 
country, and had thrice sent to the Austrians a 
flag of truce, assuring them that resistance was 
vain. The inhabitants of Raibl still speak with 
horror of this action, in which the Austrians 
fought with desperate enthusiasm, led on by 
their commander, Major Hermann, who, it is 
said, wished for death, and if so he could scarcely 
have found a more wildly romantic spot in which 
to have parted with life. 

On our return we made a slight detour to see 
the Raibl- See, a small, wild and highly romantic 
lake, from out of which flows the Raibl-bach, 
the stream which runs through the valley of 
Raibl. Sir Humphry began to fish in the lake 
whilst I attempted to sketch, but the clouds of 
evening, which had already begun to overspread 
the summits of the Alps, gathered so fast around 
us, as soon to compel us to return to our inn at 
Raibl. 

25t7i. Quitting Raibl we returned to Wurzen, 
and on the following morning left it for Villach, 
a considerable town on the other side of the 



PATERNIAN. 79 

mountains. The road winds up hill for some 
hours, but the ascent is by no means so steep as 
that of the Lobel. From the top one has a very 
fine view of the mountains and vallies of Carin- 
thia. Villach is seen at the foot of the mountain, 
and a league or two beyond it lies the Ossiacher 
lake, a considerable expanse of water, whose 
banks on one side are formed by low hills, pret- 
tily wooded, while on the other side fine corn 
fields slope down to the water's edge. To the 
left is seen the mountain of Bleiberg, which 
contains the most extensive and productive lead 
mines in Austria. It being Whit-Monday, we 
found the town very gay and full of peasants 
from the surrounding villages, who were come to 
a fair which is held there ; we only stopped to 
change horses, and then drove on up the valley of 
the Drave to Paternian, a wretched little village, 
where scarcely any thing was to be had at the 
post-house. We have now left the limestone 
Alps and come to mountains of a different cha- 
racter, formed chiefly of micaceous schist. Their 
outlines are less wild and rugged than those of 
the limestone mountains, to which, however, they 
are not at all inferior in height, and the beautiful 



80 M1LLSTADTER-SEE. 

forests of beech and fir which skirt their bases, 
appear, if possible, of a more brilliant verdure 
than the woods which clothe the Alpine chains 
that we have left behind us. From Paternian we 
continued our road to Spital, a small and dirty 
town, with which the post-house fitly corres- 
ponded, but where we were obliged to sleep, it 
being the only inn in the place. 

27th, Sir Humphry to-day determined to try 
the fishing in the Millst'adter-See, a small lake 
about a league distant from the town ; he 
accordingly rode there on the pony, and I 
walked by his side. This lake is of a very 
different character from those which we have 
as yet visited. Its banks are quite pastoral ; the 
mountains, covered with woods or green fields, 
rise with a gradual slope from the lake, and 
although of considerable elevation, for their 
summits were still covered with snow, present 
no where the rocky and wild appearance of 
those of the Woehain, or of the Valley of the 
Save. The lake itself is between two or three 
miles in length, and on its shores, embosomed in 
wood, lie the town of Millstadt and some pretty 
villages. After Sir Humphry had caught a few 



THE TAUERN ALPS. 81 

trout, we returned to Spital, which we soon 
after left for Gemund. We had a beautiful 
drive of some hours through the valley of the 
Drave, and arrived about five, but found the 
hotel occupied by peasants, who were giving a 
grand ball. We were, however, accommodated 
with very good rooms, and Sir Humphry passed 
the night very comfortably, in spite of the music 
and bustle. 

28th. We could not leave Gemund till ten 
o'clock, there being no horses left at the poste. 
It is a neat little town with an immense square 
modern Schloss, the country residence of Count 
L , of Vienna, and which is almost as ex- 
tensive as the whole town. As soon as horses 
arrived, we -proceeded to the village of Reinweg, 
and came to more lofty Alps of mica schist than 
those we have seen the two last days, and which 
form the extensive chain of the Tauern. The 
Katzberg, one of this chain, lies immediately 
above Reinweg, and we were here obliged to 
take a Vorspann, consisting of an additional horse 
and two oxen, who with no small difficulty 
dragged the carriage up to the top of the Katz- 
berg, though the road is excellent ; the view from 



82 THE TAUERN ALPS. 

the summit is very extensive and grand. The 
descent into the valley of the Murr is very 
precipitous, and this valley is by no means so 
beautiful as that of the Drave, though the Alps 
are higher and their summits more thickly 
clothed in snow; the fine woods around their 
bases are wanting, so that the valley seems cold 
and barren. We passed the night at St. Mi- 
chael, a large village at the foot of the Katz- 
berg, and on the banks of the Murr. 

29^A. Leaving St. Michael this morning, we 
turned out of the valley of the Murr into ano- 
ther lateral one, which, though narrower, is more 
beautiful; and here some of the Alps present a 
variety of very remarkable forms. The first poste 
is Tweng, a few houses collected together at the 
foot of the Radst'adter Tauern, so called from the 
town of Radstadt, which lies on the other side of 
this Alp, to distinguish it from one or two other 
chains, which also bear the name of the Tauern 
Alps. We were here again furnished with six 
horses in order to reach the summit of the pass, 
which is six thousand feet above the level of the 
sea. We were a long while crawling up this 
steep ascent, but were fully recompensed by the 



PASSAGE. 83 

magnificent views which we every now and then 
caught a glimpse of. As we ascended higher 
and higher, these views grew more and more 
wild, and every ten minutes we passed by beau- 
tiful cascades formed by the melting of the 
snows of the cold regions into which we were 
penetrating. Upon reaching the highest point 
of the pass, perhaps four thousand feet above 
the valley below, we entered as it were upon a 
frozen world, where we could see nothing around 
us but immense fields of white and dazzling 
snow, beyond which rose still more elevated 
mountains, whose summits were crested with a 
long and jagged wall of semi-transparent crested 
snow, whilst here and there a dark and rocky 
peak, seemingly indignant of its load of snows, 
had shaken them off, and elevated its head far 
above the surrounding whiteness, forming the 
most magnificent image of wild sublimity that 
can well be conceived. Having sent back 
our three extra horses, we began the descent, 
which, in spite of our two drags, was not with- 
out danger, the road being very slippery and 
steep ; but we soon arrived at a little vil- 
lage, aptly called auf dem Tauern (on the 
g2 



84 SCENERY. 

Tauern). The few huts which form this ham- 
let were still surrounded with snow, which, 
however, was beginning to melt quickly, and 
here and there a little brownish green plot of 
grass appeared, which a few days before was 
covered with snow. The road both ascending 
and descending is excellent, but it is not built 
with so much art as that of the Lob el. The 
views descending on the Radstadt side are, if 
possible, more beautiful than those which we 
saw during our ascent from Tweng. 

The mountains are more thickly wooded, and 
the springs of the various turnings of the road 
present a view of the distant Styrian Alps, one 
of which, called the Bischoff's Miitze, or the 
Mitre, is of a very singular form, consisting of 
two peaks exactly resembling gigantic termites, 
(anthills,) rising out of vast fields of snow. 
Along the side of the road runs a mountain tor- 
rent, clear as crystal, forming at every hundred 
yards fine cascades, some of which, increased 
considerably by lateral streams, are beautiful 
and picturesque to a high degree. The road then 
winds through a narrow valley, closed in on all 
sides by stupendous masses of dark blue-lime- 



SCENERY. 85 

stone, (for we are again travelling over a cal- 
careous chain,) till upon turning suddenly round 
a corner, we looked down with surprise upon an 
open, wide, extended, and fertile valley, with 
hamlets and villages peeping through the trees, 
and bounded at a great distance by another 
chain of snowy Alps. Before arriving at Unter- 
Tauern, (below the Tauern,) the first village in 
this valley, situated at the foot of the Alps, we 
passed on our left a noble cascade, bounding in 
many a broken column from an amazing height ; 
the last of these columns falls more than five 
hundred feet, and is dispersed into a light white 
foam before it reaches the pool which receives it 
below. From Unter-Tauern to Radstadt is a 
short poste. This latter is a small town, still 
surrounded by its old wall and towers, and 
appears to possess nothing remarkable. The 
poste where we passed the night is a very in- 
different inn. 

30th. We left Radstadt this morning in the 
rain, the first wet weather we have had for some 
time, and drove on through the fertile and 
beautiful valley of the Enns to Schladming. 
The country in many parts resembles a flower 



86 GROBMING. 

garden, for the narcissus, the cyclamen, and 
many other of our garden flowers flourish here 
as the common weeds of the fields and moun- 
tains. From Schladming we proceeded to 
Grobming, the next poste; it is a small village, 
picturesquely situated at the foot of high rocky 
mountains. About noon the weather cleared up, 
and on arriving here Sir Humphry determined 
to spend the afternoon in this place, and to see 
if he could find any thing to shoot in the fields. 
We accordingly went out after dinner, but 
could not see a bird, and returned in the even- 
ing to our inn, where I continued to read 
Shakspeare, which has been our book for the 
last six or seven evenings. 

31st. We quitted Grobming early this morn- 
ing, where Sir Humphry had to pay dear for 
very bad accommodations, the only instance of 
exorbitant charges which we have as yet met 
with. To remonstrate with the landlord, how- 
ever, was in vain; nor did it appear to us extra- 
ordinary that a being who had been rendered 
by illness unable to move, but by the help of a 
broad wooden bowl, in which he sat and shoved 
himself about, his legs being shrivelled up and 



AUSSEE. 87 

quite useless to him, should be churlish and 
discontented. From Grobming we went to 
Sternach, where we entered upon our former 
road, and from thence through Mitterndorf to 
Aussee, where we arrived in the afternoon, just 
as it began to rain hard. 

June 1st. — 1th. We have spent the whole of 
this week at Aussee, at a very good country hotel 
near the poste, which is not, in this little town, 
an inn, as is generally the case in this part of 
the country. Sir Humphry has been fishing 
every day from eight in the morning till three 
or four, about which time he usually dines, and 
our evenings have been spent as usual. I 
generally accompany him in all his excursions, 
being needed as an interpreter, and whilst he is 
fishing I take a sketch, or ramble about the 
lakes and through the woods, thus fully enjoy- 
ing the beautiful alpine scenery with which we 
are surrounded. Our first trip was to the 
Griindtl-See, an exceedingly beautiful lake, 
about four miles from Aussee. The drive to it 
is chiefly along the banks of the Traun, and 
though over a very bad road, which is only 
passable for a one-horse cabriolet, is very pic- 



88 THE GRUNDTL-SEE LAKE. 

turesque, and the lake is seen peeping out at 
intervals through dark green firs. The Traun, 
which is here only a small mountain stream, but 
beautifully clear, rushes foaming out of the lake 
at its southern end; a small covered bridge is 
thrown across it at this spot, beneath which are 
sluice gates, by means of which the exit of the 
waters can be partially hindered. Close to the 
bridge is a cottage inhabited by the fisherman, 
who alone has the right of fishing in the lake, 
which privilege he rents from the crown. A 
few zwanzigers (an eightpenny coin) easily 
procured for Sir Humphry every possible faci- 
lity in his favourite pursuit from this man. He 
rowed us over to the other end of the lake, 
where the Traun enters, which he told us was 
the best spot for fishing. The view of the lake 
from the southern end is finer than that from 
the northern extremity. In the centre of the 
scene at the latter end, some beautiful white 
cliffs rise to a great height, topped with bright 
green beech woods. On the right hand appear 
rugged mountains, covered with dark forests of 
pine, whilst those to the left are covered with 
woods of a lighter and more vivid green. Be- 



THE TOPLITZ LAKE. 89 

yond the lake, mountain rises over mountain, 
the nearer ones finely wooded, whilst those in 
the distance are rocky and barren, and sur- 
mounted by a white crest of snow. 

Leaving Sir Humphry occupied with fishing, 
I followed the course of the Traun for about a 
mile and a half up a fine narrow valley to the 
Toplitz Lake, from which issues no longer a 
broad and deep river, such as it flows from the 
Traun- See, but a little brawling brook eight to 
ten yards wide. The Tbplitz-See is a small 
lake, of a wild and gloomy character ; its banks 
are so precipitous that it is impossible to go 
round it, as I was told by the fishermen of the 
Griindtl-See, and above these banks nothing is 
to be seen but vast and sombre pine forests. 
There was a small canoe, hollowed out of the 
trunk of a fir-tree, lying at the water's edge, but 
there being no oar or paddle in it I could make 
no use of it, and accordingly returned to Sir 
Humphry. On a second vist to the Griindtl- 
See, I again went on to the Toplitz Lake, 
having been told by the fisherman that beyond 
it, and only a few hundred yards distant from it, 
lay another lake, the Kammer-See, from which 



90 FISH. 

the Traun took its rise, but that to reach this 
lake it was necessary to row across the Toplitz- 
See ; I therefore took an oar with me, but upon 
arriving at the lake, I was sadly disappointed at 
finding the canoe no longer there, nor could I 
imagine who could have taken it away, for there 
was not in the surrounding scene the slightest 
vestige of a human being. I however climbed 
up the rocks, and attempted to pass round the 
lake, but was soon obliged to desist, having 
twice nearly slipped over the edge of the rock, 
a precipice of many hundred feet above the 
lake, into the water, upwards of a thousand feet 
in depth. When I returned with my unused 
oar to the fisherman, he told me that the canoe 
had probably been taken by some peasants, who 
lived in a summer hut at the other end of the 
Toplitz-See. This fisherman appeared to be a 
man of considerable information; he was well 
acquainted with the various fish which inhabit 
the alpine waters, and amongst other things 
he told us that the Ombre Chevalier, a fish of 
rare occurrence, was to be met in the Lambach- 
See and in the Upper Oden-See, two small 
lakes in the middle of the snowy Alps, at a very 



ODEN-SEE LAKE. 91 

great elevation above the Grundtl-See. Sir 
Humphry much wished to visit these lakes, but 
was immediately deterred by the account which 
the fisherman gave us of the roads to them. The 
Griindtl Lake is famous for its trout and fine 
char, immense quantities of which are yearly 
sent to Vienna, potted. 

Another of our trips was to the Lower Oden- 
See, about four miles on the other side of Aussee. 
This is a small lake, very different in character 
from the Griindtl- See and Toplitz-See : the 
shores, though not exactly flat, are formed of 
slightly varied hills covered with wood. Sir 
Humphry had excellent sport, and caught a 
great many small trout in the little stream which 
flows from this lake. 

8th. Having paid another visit to the 
Grundtl-See this morning, we left Aussee and 
crossed over the mountain which we had passed 
on our former route to Ischl, and found the 
road now perfectly clear from snow. Sir Hum- 
phry intends to spend some time here, and to 
make use of the salt baths, which attract much 
company to this little place during the season. 

9th. — 21st. Sir Humphry has now given the 



92 ISCHL. 

baths a fair trial, and has found great benefit 
from them, although upon our arrival here, 
after taking his first bath, he was for giving 
them up in despair, and determined immediately 
to quit Ischl. This determination, however, 
was caused by the imprudent haste in which he 
had taken that bath, for no sooner were we ar- 
rived than he ordered a bath to go into instantly 
after his dinner. I could not help urging him 
not to do so, but in vain ; he went into it, and 
was in consequence afterwards very unwell, and 
passed a most restless night. 

In the morning he begged me to order horses 
to leave Ischl, but consented to my looking 
at some of the lodgings before we set off. I 
found one which, from its convenience and 
pleasant situation, I thought would suit him, and 
on his going with me to see it he was so pleased 
with it, that he relinquished his intention of 
leaving Ischl, and took it for a week, and we 
entered into it the same afternoon, causing a 
great bustle to its inmates, who were not accus- 
tomed to prepare so quickly for their lodgers. 
It is a very good large house, standing quite 
alone on the top of a grassy mound, with a 




T, 



ISCHL. 93 

large garden in front and fields behind, at a short 
distance from the baths, and within a few steps 
of the little town. The only persons who inha- 
bit it are the owner, an elderly man, formerly 
bailiff of the district, with his housekeeper and 
a servant, so that Sir Humphry is certain of 
enjoying the quiet and tranquillity which are 
so necessary to him. 

Ischl is a small clean town, — if it may be so 
denominated, for I should think it scarcely con- 
tains two thousand inhabitants, — delightfully 
situated in a valley watered by the river Traun, 
which flows through it, and is crossed by a wooden 
bridge. On every side are beautiful walks, some 
into the woods, some along the river, others 
again up into the mountains; and even these the 
invalid may enjoy, as he is sure at every short 
distance of finding a comfortable seat on which 
to repose. These benches generally bear the 
name of some prince or princess, whose favorite 
spot it marks, and they are always so placed as 
to command a fine view of the town, the valley 
and river, or the mountains. On the right bank 
of the town there is a sort of public garden, 
which is called the Prater, and is said to be a 



94 SCENERY. 

very humble imitation of the celebrated park of 
the same name at Vienna. Here are various 
amusements for the people, the principal ones 
shooting at the target with the rifle and the 
cross-bow; behind these gardens rises a little 
wooded hill, on the top of which is a seat 
called the Umbrella-seat, from the awning over 
it, which is spread in the shape of an um- 
brella. From this spot one enjoys a most beau- 
tiful panoramic view of the surrounding scenery. 
To the west lies the delightful valley that leads 
to Salzburg, on each side of which, mountain 
rises over mountain, all richly covered with 
wood. On the east one sees Ischl, with its 
steaming saltworks, and beyond it the valley of 
the Traun, seemingly closed in by the wild and 
rocky Alps which form the shores of the Traun- 
See. On the northern side a mighty wall of 
rocks, many thousand feet high, rises out of 
dark pine forests, and beyond these appears, in 
hoary whiteness and surrounded by glaciers and 
eternal snows, the summit of the Dachstein or 
Schneeberg, the loftiest of the Styrian Alps, 
which we often beheld in the evening from our 
windows, glowing with the ruddy beams of the 



THE TOWN. ,95 

setting sun long after all light had departed from 
the nearer and less elevated mountains. A fine 
range of wooded hills, at whose feet runs the 
Ischl, a small mountain stream that falls into 
the Traun, forms the southern boundary of this 
scene. The chief street in Ischl runs parallel 
with the river, and at its end is situated the 
Pfannhaus or boiling house, with its adjacent 
works. This is a large circular building-, con- 
taining an enormous iron boiler or pan, between 
thirty and forty feet in diameter and a foot and 
a half in depth, in which the solution of salt, 
conveyed there in pipes from the mines, is eva- 
porated. 

Ischl has but one church, which is Catholic. 
A small theatre is being erected, and is to be 
finished by the middle of the season, which will 
be in July. The houses are all arranged for 
lodgers, and rooms may be had on any scale, 
from those adapted to the habits of the most 
simple and retired individual, to those of the 
prince and his suite. The lodgings are dear, 
but living, on. the contrary, is very cheap. An 
excellent dinner at the table d'hote, where I 
usually dine, costs from one to two paper, or 



■^■■a 



96 LIVING. 

schein florins (ninepence-halfpenny to twenty- 
pence English ;) but a person may dine at what 
expence he pleases, as the dinner is always 
served a la carte, and a good plate of soup costs 
not more that one penny. A few days after our 

arrival, I met at the table d'hote Mr. B , a 

most agreeable and well-informed man, wdth 
whom 1 enjoyed many a walk in the neighbour- 
hood during his stay, which was unfortunately 
of short duration. 

Sir Humphry is now engaged in composing 
a new work, which he intends to call A Vision; 
this usually occupies our mornings, he dictates 
to me for an hour or two, then reads over what 
has been written, which I afterwards copy off 
fair, and at 12 o'clock he takes a bath. These 
baths are made with the mother-water, or residue 
which remains after the greater part of the salt 
has been crystallized out of the salt water by 
evaporation, and is an intensely strong solution of 
chloride of sodium and some other salts. This 
is diluted according to prescription for the various 
patients, so .many gallons to so much common 
water. The same solution of salt is also em- 
ployed for douche and shower baths, which are 



THE BATHS. 97 

much used, and said to be very efficacious. The 
situtation and arrangement of the vapour baths 
are rather extraordinary. Above the large boiler 
in the panhouse, on the scaffolding which sup- 
ports the roof, and from which the boiler is sus- 
pended, a number of small closets are erected, in 
which the person taking the bath is seated, so 
that he is not only completely surrounded by 
the vapour of the boiling salt water, but breathes 
an air impregnated with many volatile particles. 
These baths are used twice a day, and the 
patient usually remains in his cabinet, or walks 
along the gallery suspended over the pan from 
one to two hours at a time, which proves in a 
variety of cases of the greatest utility. Sir 
Humphry generally dines at three, and after- 
wards goes out fishing, with his servant, and often 
does not return till nine o'clock, when I read to 
him. There are a great number of visitors here, 
who come during the summer months to use the 
baths and to enjoy themselves, but Sir Hum- 
phry sees no one, and appears to wish to avoid 
all society, and of course I see none but those I 
chance to meet at the table d'hote, or in a walk. 
21 st. Having agreed yesterday with the apo- 

H 



98 ASCENT OF THE ZIMITZ. 

thecary of the place (to whose shop I go almost 
daily with some prescription or other from Sir 
Humphry, who often varies his medicines) to 
ascend one of the nearer Alps, we started for 
the summit of the Zimitz early this morning : 
we crossed over hills and dales, through woods 
and fields, till we came to the foot of the moun- 
tain, on the top of which we proposed eating our 
dinner, which we carried in our pockets. My 
companion had told me before that he had already 
ascended this Alp, and was well acquainted with 
the road ; but when we began the ascent he con- 
fessed that he was at a loss, and our only alter- 
native was to turn back, or find our way as we 
could. We chose the latter, and confiding in 
our own eyes and limbs, we followed the course 
of a mountain torrent, which came rushing down 
the rocks. Stepping from rock to rock, we in a 
short time came to the entrance of a snow-cave, 
through which this little stream flowed. Close 
to the snow we found many rare plants, and 
amongst others the yellow violet of the Alps. 
Before entering into this cave, which had been 
formed in a fallen avalanche, I slipped on the 
rock, and was obliged to jump into the icy cold 



ASCENT OF THE ZIMITZ. 99 

water, which was fortunately not deep. The 
cave, however, repaid me for my cold bath. 
Entering through an opening in its roof of 
snow, the rays of the sun illuminated its dark 
and rocky sides, and were reflected upon the 
water that flowed through the middle. On look- 
ing towards the opposite end of the cave, through 
a lofty arch of snow, we beheld a distant water- 
fall, whilst the rocks and bushes, finely lighted by 
the rays of the sun, contrasted strongly with the 
darkness of the cave, whose fretted roof seemed 
as if hewn out of the finest white marble into 
large descending points, from which the melting 
snow was continually dropping. Having made 
a slight sketch of this fairy scene, we left the 
cave, and, following the rivulet, soon reached 
the waterfall which we had seen in the distance 
through the arch of snow. An immense barrier 
of rock here put an end to our progress in this 
direction, and we were obliged to turn to the 
right, where the ascent appeared more possible. 
My companion made a considerable detour 
whilst I attempted to climb up the rocks ; but 
I had not ascended more than twenty feet, 
when, on catching hold of a small fir-tree, it 
h2 



100 ASCENT OF THE ZIMITZ. 

snapped off, and I rolled down the rocks into 
the rivulet below. In spite of my fall I re- 
ascended, and with some difficulty reached the 
uppermost rock, and found myself in a situation 
whence I could no longer ascend nor descend. 
At last my companion appeared above, and 
reaching down to me his long alpine pole, I 
clung to it, and with his assistance thus extri- 
cated myself from my most unpleasant and peril- 
ous situation ; I was, however, so exhausted, 
that we were obliged to wait a full half hour 
before we could proceed on our ascent. Our 
road then lay for a long time through a forest of 
pine and beech, till we came to a brook, whose 
course we followed to its rise, which was in a 
large snow. We passed quickly over this, and 
then saw that we only had about a fourth part 
of the ascent to accomplish. We journeyed on 
merrily, although we were obliged, for upwards 
of an hour, to climb with the help of hands and 
feet over the rocks, till we came to the last, 
though not easiest part of the journey. This 
was a wood of dwarf firs, which an avalanche of 
the last winter in its descent had laid flat upon 
the ground, though their roots generally re- 



VIEW FROM THE SUMMIT. 101 

mained fixed. We scrambled over and through 
these, and, after all difficulties, I found myself, 
about two o'clock, on the snow-clad ridge of the 
mountain. My companion was still battling 
with the prostrate firs, but arrived about a 
quarter of an hour afterwards, and we then 
went on to the highest of the five peaks which 
form the summit of the Zimitz, between seven 
and eight thousand feet above the sea. The 
view from this spot amply repaid us for the toil 
and danger we had encountered in reaching it. 
Many thousand feet below us we beheld four 
large lakes surrounded by green mountains and 
vallies glowing in the sun ; beyond these lay the 
wide extended plains of Bavaria, clothed with 
glittering towns and villages, over which the eye 
wandered to a far distant horizon, bounded only 
by the clear blue sky. 

Looking back we saw down into many a 
dark valley, out of which rose numberless snow 
peaks, and high above the rest the majestic 
Schneeberg, with its eternal glaciers, and at a 
yet greater distance the still more lofty peaks 
of the Salzburg chain ; but the reflection of the 
sun from the vast and glaring fields of snow was 



102 DESCENT. 

so strong that the eye could scarcely bear to 
look at them, and turned with delight to the 
green woods and lakes below. Having spent 
an hour in the pure air of these upper regions, 
we began to descend by a very different road 
to the one we had chosen in ascending, which, 
though better and not so rocky, was in many 
parts so steep, that we were in continual danger 
of pitching forwards, and were therefore obliged 
to seat ourselves each upon a stout branch of a 
fir-tree, and thus ride down. Having traversed 
two snow fields, we came to some as yet unin- 
habited huts, about half-way down the moun- 
tain, from whence a good sheep path conducted 
us into a valley. Here we got some milk in 
one of the dairy huts, and then made the best 
of our way towards Ischl, as a thunderstorm, 
which we had for some time seen approaching, 
was now fast gathering round us, and the 
peasants advised us to hasten as quickly as pos- 
sible, but long before we could reach home it 
burst over us with tremendous violence. The 
rain came down in such torrents, that in five 
minutes the road was more than ankle deep in 
water, but it soon changed into hail, like a 



SOCIETY AT ISCHL. 103 

shower of nuts, accompanied by the loudest 
thunder and most vivid lightning. Thus, soaked 
but much refreshed, we reached Ischl about 
eight o'clock in the evening. 

July ISth. Sir Humphry is already tired of 
Ischl, and has left off the use of the baths, by 
which, however, he has been much strengthened, 
and his health in general improved, but I suppose 
we shall soon quit this place, though he seldom 
fixes on his departure till a day or two before. 
New guests arrive daily, and this little place is 
filled with company. Parties of pleasure and 
jaunts are arranged every day to some of the 
neighbouring lakes or vallies, or other points 
worthy of being visited. I have only joined a 
few of these, for Sir Humphry not knowing 
well what to do with his morning if I am out of 
the way, I can of course only be one in those 
parties which occupy the afternoon. The first 
of the two most interesting trips was to the 
Chorinsky Klause. 

A Klause, in these alpine countries, generally 
signifies a dam or embankment, built over some 
mountain stream, in the centre of which are flood- 
gates, which can be closed so as to shut in the 



104 VISIT TO A KLAUSE. 

stream, which by degrees collects behind the wall 
or dam, till it forms a small lake. The use of this 
arrangement is to float down the wood which is cut 
in the mountains into the larger rivers, the moun- 
tain streams not having in summer a sufficient 
body of water to effect this without this contri- 
vance. The fir-trees, cut into pieces from five to 
ten feet long, are rolled down from the mountain 
into these artificial lakes. When a sufficient quan- 
tity is collected on the surface, or the water rises 
too high, the Klause wird gesprengt, that is, the 
flood-gates are opened, and the pent up lake 
rushing out with tremendous velocity, carries the 
wood along with it into the river of the neighbour- 
ing valley. It was to see the water let out that 
we went to the Klause. We started from Ischl 
after dinner, at one o'clock, a large party in six 
or seven carriages, and drove up the valley of 
the Traun, for about a league and a half, to Weis- 
senbach, a village at the foot of the mountain 
on which the Klause is situated. Here we left 
our carriages and walked up the mountain, the 
road being very steep. I joined a party con- 
sisting of Madame de B and her daughter, 

a Greek gentleman and his wife, and two or 



DESCRIPTION. 



105 



three others, and we seemed much to have 
shortened a hot walk of an hour and a half up 
hill by chatting on various subjects. 

We found the Chorinsky Klause to consist of 
a very strong and thick wall, from thirty to forty 
feet high, built across a narrow valley. In the 
centre of the wall was a large flood-gate, and on 
each side of it a much smaller one. These were 
situated at a considerable height above a clear 
shallow pool which lay at the foot of the wall, 
and was formed by the superfluous water which 
had drained from the lake, already over full. 
The whole party having taken a good position 
in front of the Klause, the signal was given. 
The workmen struck the spring of the flood- 
gates in the centre, which instantly burst open 
with a noise resembling a sudden but hollow 
clap of thunder; at the same moment an im- 
mense spout of water rushed forth, filling the 
space before occupied by the invisible air. It 
was the work of a second, and it was a magni- 
ficent sight to see the tranquil pool in an instant 
transformed into a basin of curling foam, pour- 
ing with irresistible violence over the rocks of 
the foreground, and whirling up the sand from. 



106 THE VOLKSGARTEN. 

the bottom of the stream, which was for the first 
five minutes nothing but foam of a muddy brown 
colour, till it changed by degrees to a pure 
white. The lesser flood-gates were afterwards 
opened, and then three streams poured forth at 
once from the lake. This scene lasted for nearly 
half an hour, the cascades becoming less and 
less as the quantity of water in the lake dimi- 
nished, until the latter was perfectly drained ; 
and where but a short time before we beheld a 
beautifully clear lake, we now saw only cleanly 
washed pebbles and sand, through which a little 
insignificant rill was running. Our walk back 
was very pleasant and shady. Among the party 
Madame A and Madame L , two cele- 
brated actresses, the one in comedy, the other in 
tragedy, from Vienna, were pointed out to me ; 
the former of whom was a handsome woman, 
though of small stature, and lively and animated 
in her conversation. After this excursion I very 
often met a great many of the party in a small 
public garden called the Volksgarten, to distin- 
guish it from the Prater, and where it is the 
fashion to spend an hour before dinner. The 
conversation one day turned upon the following 



AMUSEMENTS AT ISCHL. 107 

lines, which were found written upon a table in 
the garden : 

Esp^rance d'un meilleur sort 
Tou jours renaissante et trahie, 
Voila l'histoire de ma vie ; 
II n'est rien de vrai que la mort ! 

Various were the discussions upon them, and 
the ladies took great pains to discover the author. 
Who could he be ? Who was there in Ischl 
whose character at all answered to this descrip- 
tion ? No one could be hit upon with any cer- 
tainty; but at last the lively Mademoiselle Marie, 

the daughter of Madame de B , with whom 

I had walked to the Chorinsky Klause, declared 
it must be the solitary young Englishman, who 
so rarely joined in their parties of pleasure, and 
who visited nobody. It was in vain that I denied 
having written them, for they determined with 
one accord that I should be considered as the 
author, unless I should by the next morning 
produce four lines which might convince them of 
their error. I accepted the challenge, and ac- 
cordingly after dinner, for the first time in my 
life, attempted to compose a couplet, and after 



108 VEXATIOUS ADVENTURE. 

ransacking- my brains, I could produce nothing 
better than the following ; — 



Est elle done vraie cette mort tant souhaitee f 
N'est ce pas naitre a une plus mauvaise vie ? 
ISTe dirais tu pas dans l'eternite, 
La mort que j'ai desire m'a trahie ? — 



which I the next morning wrote under those of 
the anonymous author. In the evening I met 
the greater part of the company at the little 
theatre, which had been finished the week before, 
and in which a small company of players from 
some neighbouring town were doing their best 
to amuse the gay visitants of the baths. The 
ladies, and especially Mademoiselle Marie, said 
they had read the verses, and were more than 
ever persuaded of their being in the right, nor 
could all my rhetoric, aided by a pocket full of 
bonbons, convince them of the truth. 

18^. This evening at a late hour Sir Hum- 
phry returned from his fishing, without either 
fish or rod, and, not a little vexed, begged I 
would go directly to the Commissary of the 
Police, and endeavour to regain his rod, which 
he told me had been taken from him in the fol- 



INTERVIEW WITH THE COMMISSARY. 109 

lowing manner. He had driven along the banks 
of the Traun for about five miles, in a little 
chaise which he sometimes uses in his longer 
excursions, had been fishing for some hours, and 
was just preparing to return, when two men 
came up, one of whom began to talk to him and 
George in German, but as neither of them un- 
derstood him, Sir Humphry proceeded to get 
into the carriage, whilst George took up the 
fish which had been caught. Upon this the man 
became more violent in his words and actions, 
and at last forcibly seized the rod and basket, 
and walked off with them. Although it was 
just ten o'clock, I went to the inn where I knew 
the Commissary generally supped, and luckily 
found him. I related to him what had happened, 
and he was very polite, but said nothing could 
be done that night, but begged me to come to 
him the next morning, and to bring the servant 
with me. 

19th. I took George this morning to the 
Commissary, who, from his description, imme- 
diately recognized the offender, but found that 
he did not belong to his district, but to that of 
Ebensee, to the Commissary of which place he 



110 SALT WORKS. 

gave me a very civil letter. I returned to Sir 
Humphry, who said that I should take a carriage 
and drive over at once to Ebensee with George, 
and he gave me letters of introduction, which 
he had with him, to the Governor of the pro- 
vince, and some other great men, to show the 
Commissary. Arrived at Ebensee, I found the 
Commissary all civility, and the fisherman, who 
lived at some distance, was immediately sum- 
moned. In the mean time the Commissary told 
me that the rivers and lakes were let out in dif- 
ferent portions to various fishermen, who alone 
have the right to fish, or allow any other person 
to do so, in that part which they rent, and he 
supposed that Sir Humphry had exceeded the 
limit of the portion belonging to the fisherman 
at Ischl, from whom he had obtained permission 
to fish. 

Whilst waiting for the fisherman, I asked 
the Commissary if I could not see the salt 
works; he said certainly, and that he should be 
happy to show them to me, and I accordingly 
accompanied him thither, and found them to be 
on a very large scale. There are several evapo- 
rating pans, much larger than the one at Ischl, 



SALT WORKS. Ill 

and immense reservoirs for the salt water are 
kept constantly by three pipes, through which it 
is conducted from Hallstadt, more than twenty- 
seven miles distant. These pipes, the master of 
the works told me, are always running, and 
should any accident happen to either of them, it 
can be easily repaired, in spite of the great dis- 
tance they traverse, there being, at very short 
intervals, places where the pipes may be unco- 
vered and examined. From the reservoirs the 
water is conducted into the pans, and the salt 
produced by the evaporation is taken out twice 
every day, and put into large conical baskets to 
drain, after which it is pressed into conical 
six-sided forms, of various sizes, from twenty to 
a hundred pounds each. These pyramids are 
then placed, some thousands at a time, in the 
baking rooms, where they are exposed to a very 
high temperature, which renders them quite firm 
and hard, after which they are carried into the 
store-houses, from whence the salt is sent to all 
parts of Austria. The quantity produced in 
this part of the country, in these salt-w T orks, in 
those of Ischl, Aussee, Hallstadt, &c, must be 
immense, for I understand that from the ware- 



112 EXCURSION TO HALLSTADT. 

houses of Ebensee alone, upwards of 25,000 
tons of salt are sent annually across the lake 
of the Traun. 

Upon the arrival of the fisherman we found 
the case to be as the Commissary had supposed, 
and the man pleaded in his defence that it was 
allowed to take away both rod and fish from any 
one so offending. The Commissary, however, 
told him he ought to have warned Sir Humphry 
of this. The poor man said he had done so, 
but they would not understand him, and in spite 
of his defence, the Commissary compelled him 
to deliver up the rod and basket, with which I 
returned to Ischl. 

21st. Sir Humphry set out this morning in 
his little cabriolet on a fishing excursion up the 
valley of the Traun, to the lake of Hallstadt, 
and took me with him. This lake, about eight 
miles to the north east of Ischl, is of a very 
grand and imposing character, but still does not 
equal the Traun-See in the diversity and beauty 
of its banks. We drove over a wooden bridge 
at the end of the lake, where the Traun flows 
out of it, and then round its shores for a short 
distance to Obertraun, where the road termi- 



THE SALT WORKS. 113 

nated. We here took a boat and rowed for 
some miles up the lake, opposite to the small 
town of Hallstadt. The view from hence was 
superb; the nearer houses seemed built in the 
water, behind these the salt works are seen, ex- 
tensile and noble buildings, more like the palace 
or seignoral chateau of the lord of the surround- 
ing territory, than a manufactory; and beyond 
them rose the mountain which contains the salt- 
mine, a stupendous mass of rock capped with 
eternal snow, and to the left appeared the gla- 
ciers of the Schneeberg. Rather to the right of 
the saltworks, embosomed in wood, lay the rest of 
the town of Hallstadt, and one large house was 
situated some thousand feet above the lake, 
standing alone in the wood. Along the side 
of the mountain we saw what appeared to be 
a pathway, but the boatman told us this was the 
canal cut for the pipes which convey the salt- 
water from the mines of Hallstadt to the works 
of Ischl and Ebensee. This is a stupendous un- 
dertaking, for the pipes are conveyed a great 
distance over rivers and vallies and along moun- 
tains, where the passage for the pipes has been 
cut for many miles through the solid rock. Sir 



114 THE SALT PIPES. 

Humphry fished for some time but without suc- 
cess, when, not wishing to visit the town, we 
rowed back to the village of Obertraun, and on 
our way thither passed by the Gosauzwang, the 
most celebrated part of the saliduct or salt canal 
between Hallstadt and Ebensee. The three 
pipes are here carried across a very wild and 
romantic glen, the defile of the Gosau, a moun- 
tain stream which runs down through it. Four 
lofty columns of brick work, about two hundred 
feet in height, are built up from the bottom of the 
valley and from out of the waters of the Gosau, 
to a level with the pipes, which are thus carried 
over the valley, being laid from pier to pier ; 
and they serve at the same time as a bridge to 
any foot passenger who may wish to pass, being 4 
railed in on each side. These pipes, after tra- 
versing one or two smaller streams, give part of 
their water to the salt works at Ischl, and are 
then carried on to Ebensee, where they fill the 
reservoirs which I saw when I visited the Com- 
missary to procure the return of Sir Humphry's 
fishing: rod. 

23rd. Yesterday I went with a very large 
party, consisting of almost all the strangers in 



VISIT TO THE SALZBERG. 115 

Ischl, to visit the Salzberg, the salt mountain or 
rather mine, which was to be illuminated for the 
visitors. We set out at about one o'clock, a 
long string of carriages, and after an hour's drive 
through a very pleasant valley, we arrived at 
the foot of the mountain which contains the 
mine. Here a number of miners were waiting 
with sedan chairs for the ladies, many of whom 
however preferred walking up the mountain, 
and in about three quarters of an hour we 
arrived at the Haupt Eingang^ or chief entrance 
of the mine. We were now to be attired, as 
is usual on entering the mines, in a long white 
mantle or frock, and a large wide broad brim, 
the latter to hinder us from knocking our brains 
out, and the former to keep our clothes clean. 
Here was confusion dire; this frock was too 
small, this too long ; this lady had no brimmer, 
this gentleman could find no stick. I laid hold 
of the first frock and hat I met with, but up 
came a lady and begged I would exchange with 
her, as her frock was so long she could not walk 
in it, and mine so short that it did not reach to 
my knees. La grande toilette at length finished, 
the ladies were placed in their carriages, that is 
i 2 



116 THE SALT MINE. 

two in each wheelbarrow, face to face, with a 
miner before to pull, who carried a lamp in his 
hand, and another to push behind, and between 
every two barrows went another miner bearing 
a paper lanthorn. The gentlemen were of course 
on foot, with the exception of one or two gouty 
invalids. 

In this guise, with half-a-dozen miners going 
before carrying lamps, the whole train entered 
the passage, and in a few seconds lost sight of 
daylight. After a long, wet, and (in spite of 
our many lamps) dark journey through this 
narrow and low passage, where my head was 
continually coming in contact with the roof, we 
came to the JRutsch, or slide, which leads down 
into the salt-chamber. This Rutsch is formed of 
the trunks of two large fir-trees laid close to- 
gether, rounded and polished, and placed in an 
oblique direction, in an angle of about forty de- 
grees. A miner, with a lamp in one hand, places 
himself astride these trees, and holds with his 
other hand a cord which is fixed to the rock on 
the sides. The person who wishes to descend seats 
himself behind the miner, and holds him by the 
shoulders. The miner then lets the cord slip 



THE SALT MINE. 117 

through his hands, and down they go like light- 
ning into what seems an abyss of darkness : safe 
at the bottom, he gives a shout that the next 
couple may follow. When the Rutsch is very 
long, as in the mines at Hallein, near Salzburg, 
the miner always sits upon a thick leather apron, 
and when alone makes no use of the cord, but 
rushes down with a fearful impetus into the salt- 
cave below. When we arrived at the Rutsch, 
and the ladies had all got out of their barrows, 
after much discussion and many fears and doubts, 
they consented thus to descend, as the miners 
assured them it was more dangerous to do so by 
the steps cut in the rock at the side, which were 
exceedingly precipitous and very wet. Having 
reached the bottom of the Rutsch, which ends in 
a slight curve to break the impetus of the de- 
scent, we found ourselves in an immense cavern, 
or room, excavated in the rock, about twelve feet 
high, and from ten to twelve thousand in circum- 
ference, supported in the middle by a massive 
pillar of rock, and lighted up by some hundred 
lamps, which, however, only served to give the 
scene a more awful and gloomy appearance. 
The visitors, whose number was considerable, in 



118 THE SALT MINE. 

tlieir long white mantles and hats, looked like 
spectres wandering in the shades of a nether 
world. The roof and walls of this cavern were 
covered with minute crystals of salt, not, how- 
ever, sufficiently large to give to it the glittering 
appearance which I had expected. The moun- 
tain contains a great many of these Salzkammern 
or salt-chambers, which at different periods are 
filled with fresh water, conducted into them by 
wooden pipes. When this has dissolved a suffi- 
cient quantity of salt, which operation occupies 
some months, it is drained off through a deep 
perpendicular shaft, near the middle of the cave, 
and is then conducted through wooden pipes, 
often for a very great distance, to the boiling- 
houses, where it undergoes the progress of eva- 
poration. 

Having wandered through these gloomy abodes 
of silence and night for some time, we ascended 
the stairs, the ladies resumed their seats in the 
barrows, and the procession returned as it had 
entered. To save my head from additional 
thumps to the many it had received on entering, 
I took the place of one of the pushers, and after 
a merry drive of about twenty minutes we again 



RETURN TO GMUNDEN. 119 

saw daylight, like a distant star, increasing in 
size till we reached the entrance of the mine. 
We here unspectred ourselves, and returned 
home in our usual terrestrial appearance, and a 
merry party we were. 

2.4th. We left Ischl this morning in a little 
cabriolet for Aussee, leaving the travelling car- 
riage packed and ready for starting at Ischl, for 
Sir Humphry wished, before he quitted this 
part of the country, to have a day or two's more 
fishing in the Grundtl-See ; but the weather 
proving very warm, and a thunderstorm coming 
on in the evening, he determined not to remain 
at Aussee beyond to-morrow. 

26th. We returned this morning to Ischl, 
and after an early dinner bade adieu to it, and 
set off for Ebensee. We here again crossed the 
magnificent Traun-See, and after a row of two 
hours and a half, and seeing Gmimden, as it 
were, rise out of the lake, we found ourselves in 
our old quarters at the Ship. 

27^, 28^. These were wet days, and Sir 
Humphry chiefly occupied himself in dictating 
" The Vision," and reading. In the afternoon 
of the latter, his coachman arrived from Vienna, 



120 THE " VISION." 

and brought with him " Salmonia," which had 
just been published, and was forwarded to him 
through the Embassy at Vienna. Sir Humphry 
had engaged this man, who is an Englishman, 
at Ischl, whilst in the service of the Polish 

Princess L , which he left, not wishing to 

go to Poland. Sir Humphry now intends buy- 
ing three additional horses, and thus rendering 
himself independent of the poste. 

29th. Sir Humphry this morning finished 
his " Vision," which, he tells me, is really 
founded on a dream that he had some years ago, 
in which he found himself borne through the 
firmament from planet to planet. Of this dream, 
which he introduces as the consequence of a highly 
interesting and animated conversation that he 
holds with two friends in the Colosseum at 
Rome, on the grandeur and decay of nations, 
and the mutability of religions, the general out- 
line, he says, has alone remained in his mind; 
but it has been his pleasure and delight during 
his mornings at Ischl, and when he was not 
engaged in his favourite pursuit of fishing, to 
work upon this foundation, and to build up a 
tale, alike redundant with highly beautiful 



ITS ORIGIN. 121 

imagery, fine thoughts, and philosophical ideas ; 
and the hours thus passed with Sir Humphry 
have afforded me high mental gratification and 
advantage, for I have then marked his mind 
wandering, as it were, with the associates of his 
early days; those days, in which he was evidently, 
by the exercise of his extraordinary powers and 
quick perception, exciting not only his own 
mind to dive into, and to unfold to clearer view, 
the mysteries of creation, but that too of other 
congenial spirits ; thus most naturally collecting 
around him a constellation of shining lights, 
the remembrance of whom often awakens vivid 
thoughts of the past, and rouses his whole soul 
to action. 

In the afternoon I read to him " Salmonia," 
in which he immediately began to make cor- 
rections and additions in preparation for a second 
edition. 

SI st Sir Humphry this morning went to look 
at a pair of horses which he thought of buying. 
The price demanded was 800 florins, (paper 
money, ) about 32/. ; but Sir Humphry thought 
them too dear, and did not buy them. In the 
afternoon we paid another and a last visit to the 



122 SCHORFL1NG. 

Falls of the Traun. This grand and striking 
scene appeared now even more beautiful than 
when I saw it for the first time. The body of 
water in the river was considerably less, thus 
rendering the different cascades more diversified 
and picturesque. Sir Humphry amused himself 
for an hour or two with fishing, and we after- 
wards returned to Gmunden, which we quitted 
on the 3rd of August, and drove over to Vockla- 
briick, where we remained the rest of the day, for 
Sir Humphry to fish in the Vockla, and went 
on the next morning across the country for 
some leagues to Schorfling, a little village on the 
Atter, or Kammer-See. This lake, the largest 
of those in Upper Austria, is about fifteen miles 
in length ; the shores on this side are low, but 
at the opposite end they are formed by the Zimitz 
Alp, the Schaafberg, and the chain of mountains 
which separate this lake on the one side from the 
Wolfgang- See, and on the other from Ischl 
and the valley of the Traun. Its depth is not 
very considerable, but the colour of the water 
is a beautiful green. On a promontory which 
stretches far out into the lake, stands the castle 
of Kammer, a fine large building, belonging to 



SALZBURG. 128 

a noble family of the same name. The most 
striking view of the lake is from the little village 
of See-Walchen, about a mile from Schorfling. 
We remained at Schorfling in a miserable inn, 
without having one single fine day till the 9th. 
Sir Humphry did so, finding there were some 
quails in the neighbouring fields, and he went 
out shooting and fishing every day, in spite of 
the weather, with considerable success. 

9th. We quitted Schorfling at nine o'clock 
and went to Frankenmarkt, a long drive chiefly 
over bad and cross roads. Before arriving at 
this little town, we beheld on our left a fine 
and magnificent view of the Schneeberg, and 
the Alps of Hallstadt and Aussee, and on quit- 
ting it we caught the first glimpse of the Salz- 
burg chain, which we continued to behold in- 
creasing in grandeur and beauty the nearer we 
approached it. The next poste from Franken- 
markt is Neumarkt, and from hence we drove 
through many villages and hamlets, the road 
being now and then rather hilly, till, at about 
half-past one, we saw Salzburg lying before us in 
the broad valley of the Salza, backed by a gigantic 
rampart of Alps. On the right side of the road 



1*24 SALZBURG. 

we passed tty a small lake of no great beauty or 
extent. The situation of Salzburg is strikingly 
grand and beautiful, and probably no town in 
Europe can boast of a finer. Lying as it were 
close at the foot of the lofty pyramid of the 
Watzmann, a mountain more than ten thousand 
feet in height, the town extends along the right 
and left bank of the Salza or Salzache, which 
separates it into two parts, the old and new town, 
which are united by a strong wooden bridge. On 
a hill on the right bank of the river, considerably 
elevated above the town, stands the fortress or 
mountain castle, a very strong and imposing for- 
tification. Both parts of the town are strongly 
fortified, and that on the right bank of the river 
is provided by nature with a lofty wall of rock, 
superior to any means of defence that could be 
formed by art. 

10th. The first thing I did this morning was 

to call upon Count W for Sir Humphry, 

in order to obtain permission for him to shoot in 
the neighbourhood. The Count was not in Salz- 
burg, but I easily obtained leave from the person 
who acted for him during his absence. Sir 
Humphry accordingly immediately started for 



TOMB OF PARACELSUS. 125 

the neighbouring marshes, and I occupied the 
morning in seeing the town. The most remark- 
able object is the Neu Thor, the New Gate, a 
stupendous undertaking, which may stand com- 
parison with any of the works of the ancient 
Romans. It is formed of one long arch, or 
rather tunnel, some hundred feet in length, 
between twenty to thirty in breadth, and thirty 
to forty feet in height, cut through the wall of 
rock, which surrounds the town on the Bavarian 
side. On the outside the rock is handsomely 
sculptured, and forms a very elegant entrance 
into this long passage. This work was com- 
menced at the beginning of the last century, 
and forty years elapsed ere it was completed. 
Another work of a similar kind is the summer 
riding school, a large amphitheatre, the galleries 
of which are cut out of the solid rock. From 
hence I crossed over the Salzache into the new 
town, to visit the church of St. Sebastian, which 
contains the monument of the celebrated Theo- 
phrastus Paracelsus. It is very simple, and 
formed of the red brown marble of the country. 
It bears his head in relief, and the following 
inscription, which is a proof of the great esteem 



1*26 BUILDINGS. 

in which the memory of this famous quack 
was held even till the middle of the eighteenth 
century. 

" Philippi Theophrasti Paracelsi qui tantam orbis farnam ex auro 
chymico adeptus est effigia et ossa donee rursus circumdabuntur pelle 
sua sub reparatione ecclesiae mdcclii. ex sepulchrali tabe eruta heic 
locata sunt. 

" Conditur hie Philippus Theophrastus insignis medicinse doctor, 
qui dira Ula vulnera, lepram, podagram, hydropsin, aliaque insanabilia 
corporis contagia mirifica arte sustulit, ac bona sua in pauperes distri- 
buenda collocandaque honoravit. 

" Anno mdxxi. die xxiii Septembris vitam cum niorte mutavit." 

On my return I passed by the house in which 
he died, and on the outside of it there is still a 
painting of him, and a nearly obliterated in- 
scription. From hence I went to the church of 
St. Peter, in the old town, to see the tomb of 
Haydn ; but unfortunately found the church 
closed, and could not see the monument. 

The cathedral church of St. Rupert is a fine 
building in the Italian style of architecture. 
It is built partly of free-stone and partly of 
marble. The streets of Salzburg, with the ex- 
ception of the chief street, are narrow and gene- 
rally ill paved, but the houses are clean and 
neat, and of a great height. The palace of the 
former archbishop is a spacious and magnificent 



AIGEN. 127 

building, and before it is a beautiful fountain. 
Besides its public buildings, Salzburg lias many 
large and elegant private bouses. 

On my return to the inn I found Sir Hum- 
phry already there, and that he had dined ; and 
he asked me to accompany him to Aigen, a 
beautiful villa, about two miles from Salzburg, 
the seat of Prince Schwarzenberg. From the 
gardens of this villa the view of Salzburg and 
the whole chain of Alps is most magnificent, 
but we could not enjoy it completely, as the 
summits of the mountains were mostly veiled 
in cloud, thus mingling as it were with the 
heavens, and only here and there a dark brown 
peak was seen piercing through the white 
shroud, which every now and then passed over 
it like the foaming wave over a rock, leaving it 
for some moments invisible. We strolled for 
some time through the gardens, Sir Humphry 
on his pony, and then returned to the city. 

I lth, Ylth. Were cloudy and rainy days, 
but in spite of the weather Sir Humphry has 
been out shooting the greater part of them, with, 
however, very little good fortune; and on the 
13th, we left Salzburg in the morning, and 



128 FALLS OF THE SCHWARTZBACH. 

drove through a long avenue of fine beech-trees 
to Hallein, passing by the Untersberg, where 
there are large quarries of white marble, belong- 
ing to Bavaria. To the right, the view of the 
snowy Watzmann, and the nearer and finely 
wooded mountains was exceedingly striking. 
Above Hallein two enormous brown rocks rise 
out of the woods, bearing a very striking resem- 
blance to artificial walls. Hallein is a dirty 
town, celebrated only for its extensive salt 
mines. The scenery between it and Golling 
is fine, but cannot be compared with that be- 
yond Golling. At this latter place we stopped 
for two or three hours, and whilst Sir Humphry 
took his dinner, I went to see the Falls of the 
Schwartzbach, about two miles distant. After 
crossing the Salza, I came in about half an hour 
to the first or lower fall, where, in the very midst 
of dark pines, some of which seemed even to 
grow out of the falling water, the Schicartz- 
bach, or dark stream, dashes over the rocks, and 
divides itself into two branches, one of which 
makes but one single leap to the pool below, 
whilst the other descends in innumerable small 
cascatelles, and the black rocks, peeping here 




IFA LHJS 4 lib *§ PHWAMMBAriHl 



FALLS OF THE SCHWARTZBACH. 129 

and there through the white and curling foam, 
give a very beautiful effect to this part of the 
scene. I then ascended with my young guide, 
a little boy whom I had taken with me from 
Golling, to the upper fall, of which nothing is 
visible from below but the rising spray, and the 
beautiful iris playing upon it. The pathway 
leads immediately to the front of this fall, which, 
in point of singularity of situation, is perhaps 
unrivalled. 

At this spot the rocks form a wide and mas- 
sive arch, on which the tall pines and other trees 
stand firmly rooted. Beneath this arch, rude 
blocks are tumbled one upon another in wild 
confusion, through which the water of the upper 
fall forces its way to the lower one. Above the 
arch which nature has thus formed, a slight 
wooden bridge is built, so that two openings 
are thus formed, the one above the other, through 
which the water is seen descending in a broad 
sheet of foam. Standing at the foot of this 
cascade, it is first seen gushing forth from the rock 
amongst the trees immediately above the wooden 
bridge ; between this and the natural arch it 
again appears, and is for the third time seen 

K 



130 THE SALZA. 

below the arch, closing the opening between it 
and the rocks beneath like a white curtain. 
The rainbow was seen beautifully shadowing 
the spray wafted from the fall, which was itself 
in a dark recess of the mountain, and the sun 
tipped the tops of the surrounding trees with a 
brilliant light, whilst now and then a single ray 
shot through the leaves and fell upon the white 
fall. It was a scene before which a painter 
might have sat for hours. 

We afterwards went upon the bridge, from 
whence we had a view of the whole fall, looking 
down into the basin which receives it. A little 
footpath leads from the bridge to the spot where 
the water issues as clear as crystal from the rock, 
in the same manner as that of the Savitza in 
Wochain. After taking one or two rapid 
sketches, I returned with my little guide to 
Golling, which Sir Humphry soon after left 
for Werfen, and we turned into the mountains, 
passing through a magnificent defile where the 
Salza is quite hemmed in by rocks, through 
which this foaming river forces its way with 
irresistible violence. 

The Salza in its whole course is a muddy 



SUNRISE. 131 

river, which considerably detracts from the beauty 
of the scene. Towards evening we arrived at 
Werfen, a small insignificant town with an 
ancient fort on the hill above it, and passed the 
night at a tolerable inn. 

14th. Rising early this morning and looking 
from my window before sunrise, I beheld one 
of the finest scenes imaginable. The distant 
snowy Watzmann appeared quite near, and was 
encircled by beautiful rose-coloured clouds, 
though not so dense as to hide the mountain 
which glimmered through them, tinged with 
the same beautiful hue. These clouds, which 
kept ascending and descending, and now and 
then breaking and leaving the mountain quite 
clear, became gradually fainter and fainter, till 
the sun rose, bringing with him the mists of 
morning, when the whole scene vanished from 
my eyes, and this so quickly, that I was almost 
tempted to fancy it a dream. 

At nine o'clock we left Werfen, and crossing 
the Salza drove on through some very pretty 
villages to Itan, a little hamlet, where we had 
to wait a considerable time for horses, the Arch- 
duke John having passed through but a few 
K 2 



132 AUF-DEM-TAUERN. 

hours before, on Ms road from the baths of 
Gastein to Gr'atz. From Itan we proceeded 
to Radstadt, and from thence along our former 
road to Unter-Tauern. 

15th. This morning was rainy, but in spite of 
this I preferred walking up the mountain, to the 
slow pace at which the carriage ascended with 
four horses and two oxen. The rain ceased in 
about an hour, but the distant views, on our 
former descent so beautiful, were now all veiled 
in mist and cloud. We passed two very fine 
falls, one of them a little out of the road, which 
Sir Humphry got out to see. It is called Prince 
John's Fall, and is a cascade of from three to 
four hundred feet high, and is well worth seeing. 

On arriving at Auf-dem-Tauern, the little 
village near the summit of the pass, we found 
the fields and the greater part of the surrounding 
Alps, which when we passed the first time were 
hidden as far as the eye could reach in snow, 
now richly clad with fine grass and alpine flowers. 
The road descending to Tweng is formed of 
white primary marble, mixed with mica-schist. 
At Tweng we struck into a cross road to Tam- 
sweg, a large village lying in a fine broad valley, 



MURRAU. 133 

in the middle of which runs a branch of the 
Murr, which we have followed from the very 
peak of the Tauern. The inn here was very bad. 
In the evening I went to the village doctor 
for some medicine for Sir Humphry, who told 
me that this valley was one of the highest in 
Austria, the village itself lying three thousand 
and twenty-two Paris feet above the level of 
the sea, and that the pass of the Tauern was 
rather more than two thousand feet higher. 

16th. We left Tamsweg this morning, and 
drove on, over abominable roads, to Murrau, a 
dirty little town on the Murr. Sir Humphry 
said he should stay a day here to see if he could 
shoot some quails, or catch any huchos * in the 
river, and he went out immediately after we 
arrived, about two o'clock, but found no quails. 
The Murr forms a very pretty cascade about a 
mile below the town. 

17 th. Sir Humphry went this morning to 
the river and fished for some hours, but in vain. 



* A variety of the genus Salmo that inhabits the Danube and its 
tributary streams. It sometimes reaches the enormous size of eighty 
pounds. See a complete description in " Salmonia," second edition. 



134 FRIESACH. 

This, added to an exorbitant bill brought in by 
the host, determined him to proceed, and we 
left Murrau at four in the afternoon. The 
scenery of the valley of the Murr is always of 
the same kind ; mountains clad with fine woods 
diversified with fields and villages, and the river 
winding through the valley. We passed on 
our road two old feudal castles, rearing their 
grey walls out of the wood. At the next station, 
Neumarkt, we found ourselves on the same road 
which we had traversed on our way to Carniola. 
There being no tolerable inn here, we proceeded 
a post further, to Friesach, and had a very 
pleasant moonlight drive along the banks of a 
foaming brook, and through some dark and shady 
glens. 

18th. Sir Humphry spent the whole of this 
day in the fields round Friesach, in the hope of 
finding a good many quails, but returned late in 
the afternoon with only one or two, and com- 
plaining terribly of the heat. 

19^. We left Friesach early this morning, 
and drove on, over our old road, to St. Veit and 
Klagenfurth, where we turned off to the right, 
and proceeded along the banks of the Lake of 



VILLACH. 135 

Klagenfurth to Velden. The length of this lake 
is about fifteen miles, its greatest breadth three 
or four. The scenery of its banks near Klagen- 
furth is rather flat and uninteresting, but towards 
Velden it becomes more diversified and beautiful. 
Sir Humphry intended passing the night at 
Velden, but the old ruined chateau, which now 
serves as the post-house, was better adapted for 
the habitation of bats and owls than the accom- 
modation of a sickly and susceptible traveller ; 
and accordingly he ordered horses for Villach, in 
spite of the approaching night. Whilst thejr 
were being put to, we enjoyed a fine view of 
the lake through the arched windows of the 
earth-floored hall of the chateau. Some time 
before we arrived at Villach it was quite dark, 
but the road being very good and perfectly safe, 
Sir Humphry, notwithstanding his reluctance to 
travel after nightfall, said that he was glad that 
he had gone on to Villach, where he would stay 
to try the shooting. 

20th. This morning he changed his mind, 
and we went on to Wurzen, crossing over the 
same mountain which we had passed on our 
road to Ischl. The ascent on this side is much 



136 THE ALPS. 

longer than that from Wurzen. At the foot of 
the mountain are some hot baths, much used by 
the inhabitants of Villach. We tried their tem- 
perature and found it to be 85° Fahrenheit. 
The proprietor said that the water contained 
principally sulphur and magnesia. 

21st — 25th. These days were chiefly wet 
and rainy, but when it did not pour Sir Hum- 
phry was out shooting in the marshes. Two 
mornings, when the rain kept him at home, he 
occupied himself with the additions to " Salmo- 
nia," and in dictating an ancient Irish Tale; a 
fairy fiction, or a tale of enchantment, founded 
on the supposed adventures of a Norwegian hero 
in Ireland. 

26th. A fine day at last, and we see the 
Alps unveiled for the first time since we have 
been here. I thought I should have seen them 
quite free from snow, and was not a little sur- 
prised, on the clearing away of the clouds, to 
find them covered with a newly fallen crest* 
which was brilliantly white, for I believed that 
the temperature of the air would be too high 
to allow the snow, which falls on the heights 
when it rains in the valleys, to remain un- 



SOURCE OF THE SAVE. 137 

melted even for the shortest time. In the after- 
noon I took a ramble with the postmaster, as a 
guide, to see a waterfall in the neighbourhood, 
which I suspected from what he told me was the 
feeder of the pond from which the Wurzen-Save 
rises. After a long walk through the woods in 
one of the smaller side valleys, at the opening of 
which the pond or source of the Save is situated, 
we arrived at the end of the valley, where all pro- 
gress was put an end to by the lofty and rocky 
mountains which shut it in on all sides; moun- 
tains, through which there is hardly a path for 
the most adventurous chamois hunter. In the 
centre of this vale is a hut, or, as it is called by 
the peasants, an AIpe, (a hut on the mountains,) 
built with the trunks of trees, in which a few 
cowherds were employed in making cheese. 
Opposite this hut, high up in the rocks, is a 
considerable cascade, which without doubt is the 
source of the Save. The water issues in a con- 
siderable stream from an opening in the side of 
the mountain, and rushes down into the valley 
foaming and dashing over the rocks; it then 
flows on for a short time in a bed of limestone 
pebbles, where it suddenly disappears, sinking 



138 SOURCE OF THE SAVE. 

into the ground, and in all probability con- 
tinues its subterraneous course through the whole 
length of the valley, till it rises in the pond near 
Wurzen. We ascended with considerable dif- 
ficulty to the top of the fall, and in order to 
examine the hole, I was obliged to take off my 
shoes to prevent my slipping over the rocks. 
The water flowed perfectly clear and intensely 
cold from a reservoir in the interior of the moun- 
tain, but the opening in the rocks was not suffi- 
ciently large to enable me to look in. Having 
descended safely, and drank some curds and 
whey in the Alpe, we returned home ; and I de- 
termined, if the weather should be fine to-morrow, 
to cross over the Alps to Trenta, and see the 
source of the Isonzo, to seek which we made such 
a long trip in vain the last time we were here. 

27th. I started from Wurzen at eight o'clock 
with a guide, who said that he was well ac- 
quainted with the pass across the Alps, and as 
he told me we should find nothing to eat at 
Trenta, we took some cold meat and eggs with 
us. At Kronan we turned into the beautiful 
defile which lies behind this village, and which 
is called the Valley of Pisching, from a little 



TRENTA. 139 

stream which flows through it, along whose 
banks we walked briskly for about an hour and 
a half, surrounded on all sides by rocky and 
magnificent mountains. At the end of the 
valley we turned off to the right, and began to 
ascend one of the mountains by a very rugged 
and steep path, passing sometimes through fir 
woods, and at other times over white limestone 
rocks. After a very fatiguing ascent of more 
than two hours, we found ourselves on the top 
of a pass between two mountains. To our left 
was a still more lofty mountain, through which, 
near the summit, there was a large hole like a 
window, so that the blue sky was distinctly 
seen through it. My guide told me that 
it was possible to ascend to this hole from the 
other side, but that he had never been there. 
The descent to Trenta on the other side was 
much worse than our ascent had been, the path 
or rather track that we followed being every 
now and then impeded by great blocks of lime- 
stone and shattered fir-trees. The points of 
view were very fine and wild, though the whole 
seemed desolate and dreary. In less than an 
hour we reached the valley and the few huts 



140 THE ISONZO. 

wliicli form the hamlet of Trenta. In the 
middle of the valley runs the Isonzo, which is 
seen gushing forth from the rocks, and forming 
a magnificent cascade in a gulley or crevice of 
the mountain, a few hundred yards distant from 
Trenta. I immediately went to it, and found 
that the fall consisted of three distinct cascades, 
one above the other, all three highly picturesque, 
but chiefly so the upper one, which is by far 
the loftiest. My guide said the quantity of 
water was not now so considerable as in gene- 
ral, and that if I liked to go to the top of 
the uppermost fall I could see the place from 
whence it issued out of the mountain. We 
accordingly climbed up the rocks till we came to 
a heap of loose and detached fragments of 
limestone, from under which the water appeared 
to issue, but on climbing up still further, I 
came to a large opening in the rock, through 
which a sunbeam fell, and upon looking into it, 
I saw that within there was a large cavern filled 
with water perfectly clear, and apparently of 
great depth, for when I threw in a large white 
stone on the spot where the sunbeam played 
upon the water, I saw it descend through it for 



ITS SOURCE. 141 

a long time. Of the extent of this subterra- 
neous lake and cavern it was impossible to form 
any idea, for all beyond a few feet from the 
opening was darkness. The peasants at Trenta 
call this source the Sorga, and they told me 
that after great melting of the snows the water 
rushes also out from the opening, and then forms 
a very noble cascade. The water is intensely 
cold, yet an old peasant assured me, that on 
looking through the hole he had sometimes seen 
fish in the lake. This, however, seemed very 
doubtful, for many others said they had re- 
peatedly been there and had never seen a trace 
of any living animal in the water within the 
mountain. Having taken a sketch or two and 
eaten our frugal dinner, we began to think of 
returning home, and reascended the rugged path 
which, had brought us to Trenta, but before we 
reached the summit of the pass I experienced 
great pain in the thighs and legs, so that I was 
obliged to rest every now and then. At last, 
however, we gained the top, and having staid 
there for a good quarter of an hour to recruit 
my strength, we descended briskly, passed again 
through the romantic glen of Kronau, and I found 



14*2 VELDES. 

myself at home by seven o'clock. Fifty kreut- 
zers (Is. &d. English) made my guide a happy 
man, and the evening was passed in recounting 
to Sir Humphry the adventures of the day. 

29th. We left Wurzen this morning, and 
passed over our old road to Assling. The 
scenery of the valley is now more beautiful 
than when we last saw it, for trees of every 
kind appear in full verdure on the sides of the 
mountains ; beech, oak, ash, walnut, birch, and, 
last and highest, the pine, above which are the 
bare brown rocks, just tipped with snow. Three 
leagues beyond Assling we turned out of the 
post road, and drove to Radmannsdorf, passing 
through what much resembled an English park ; 
fine large trees rising from a verdant turf, ren- 
dering the drive at once shady and agreeable. 
Radmannsdorf is a small insignificant town ; the 
only inn it has to boast of was being repaired 
and not habitable, so that we were obliged to go 
somewhere else, and Sir Humphry determined 
to proceed to Veldes and to spend a day or two 
in that beautiful neighbourhood. After an hour's 
drive we arrived there, and with considerable 
difficulty, and some danger to the carriage, we 



FISH. 143 

got up a narrow and hilly lane, at the top of 
which the best inn in the village is situated, 
which we however found bad enough. Sir 
Humphry begged me immediately to go to the 
fisherman's at the other side of the lake, and see 
what he had. I found in his tank only very 
large carp and some small specimens of Silurus 
glanis. This latter fish is found in this and one 
or two more of the Austrian lakes. The fisher- 
man told me that it here sometimes grows to a 
great size, and that the last year he and his 
fellow-fisherman had caught one that weighed 
upwards of two hundred pounds. I chose the 
smallest carp, one of five pounds, and a little 
Silurus, and was then rowed back to Veldes by 
the fisherman. The lake was beautifully tran- 
quil and clear, and in the shade of the mountains, 
for the evening was already set in, resembled an 
extensive surface of black polished marble, only 
ruffled by the paddle of the canoe which bore us 
across it. We had part of the fish dressed for 
supper, and we found the carp far preferable to 
the Silurus, for the flesh of the latter is flabby 
and insipid. 

30^. At one o'clock in the morning George 



144 LA1BACH. 

called me to Sir Humphry, who told me that he 
felt very ill. At four he begged I would order 
horses to quit Veldes as soon as possible, but 
none could be procured till seven, and then only 
a pair of cart horses. Sir Humphry in the mean- 
while applied leeches, and found himself consi- 
derably relieved. At seven o'clock we left 
Veldes, but, as if fated to be unfortunate in 
this village, our peasant -postilion drove us 
against the projecting roof of a small house, 
which however did no further damage than that 
of dashing the lamps to pieces. We at last 
got clear of Veldes, and without further acci- 
dent soon reached Safnitz, where we found post 
horses which took us to Krainburg by one o'clock, 
and from thence to Laibach by four, where 
we took up our old quarters at Detella's inn. 

31st August — 1th October. Sir Humphry con- 
tinued very unwell for two days, but on the 
third went out shooting as he used to do for- 
merly. The ennui of Laibach is terrible, for 
Sir Humphry sees nobody, and is daily occupied 
in shooting or fishing, and it is only when the 
rain keeps him at home that he dictates to me 
the additions and corrections for " Salmonia," or 



THE RIVER LAIBACH. 145 

continues his Irish Tale, " The last of the O'Do- 
nohoes" which he finished on the 13th of Sep- 
tember. The second edition of " Salmonia" was 
not finished till the 25th, and I added six little 
views to it, which Sir Humphry begged I would 
draw for him ; the first three are from his des- 
cription, and the remainder from sketches I 
have taken on our journey. After " Salmonia" 
had been safely despatched to the English Em- 
bassy at Vienna, Sir Humphry determined upon 
making a little tour to Trieste, and there to exa- 
mine the electrical phcenomena presented by the 
Torpedo, or Electrical Ray, and we accordingly 
left Laibach on the 6th of October, in the after- 
noon, in a little carriage drawn by Sir Hum- 
phry's two ponies, for he bought another shortly 
after our arrival at Laibach. We only went on 
to Oberlaibach, were we spent the night. Not 
far from this small village the river Laibach 
issues, for the last time, from its subterraneous 
passage. 

1th. Early this morning I went with two stu- 
dents from Munich, whom I met on their road 
to Adelsberg, to see the source of the river. At 
the end of a romantic glen, surrounded by fine 

L 



146 SOURCE OF THE LAIBACH. 

rocks and wood, the river oozes out of the hill, 
forming a large pond, which falls over a natural 
dam in front, and is then joined, a few hundred 
yards below, by another subterraneous stream, 
and they together form a tolerably large river. 
Parting here from my Munich companions, I 
returned to Oberlaibach, when I found Sir 
Humphry was already gone out shooting, but 
he shortly returned, and having shot nothing, 
we set out for Planina. Immediately upon 
leaving Oberlaibach we ascended a very long 
and steep hill, the surface of which was every- 
where perforated with large conical pits, much 
resembling funnels, affording a striking ex- 
ample of that species of country called by geo- 
logists funnel land. Arrived at the top of the hill 
we found ourselves in a wide fertile valley, through 
which we saw the Laibach winding slowly, till 
on reaching the end of the valley it disappears 
in the fields, and after pursuing its subterraneous 
course through the mountain, again rises to the 
surface near Ober-Laibach. We stopped to 
bait the horses at Loitsch, and then drove on 
through the valley to Planina, a dirty village, 
where we passed the night in a miserable inn. 



SESANA. 147 

8th. Leaving Planina early this morning, we 
ascended a very steep hill, at the foot of which 
the Laibach again rises out of the mountains as 
it does at Ober-Laibach. The country between 
Planina and Adelsberg is bleak and barren, and 
presents nothing interesting. The mountain 
near the latter small town contains the famous 
grottos of Adelsberg, formerly thought to be 
the only spot where that singular animal the 
Proteus Anguinus was found. Sir Humphry 
said there was no time for me to visit these 
grottos now, but he thought that he should pass 
through Adelsberg again upon his return, and 
we accordingly drove into Trewalchen, where 
we passed over another long and steep hill. At 
Sesana we saw the first olive trees ; they much 
resemble the common willow, but are darker ; 
these and the flat-roofed houses, and a lighter 
and more airy style of architecture, told us that 
we were approaching Italy. The country be- 
tween Sesana and Trieste is wild and bleak, 
completely covered with broken and waterworn 
rocks, over which, ages ago, some great current 
of the ocean must have passed, and thus occa- 
sioned their present singular and often fantastic 



148 TRIESTE. 

shapes. At the foot of the last hill, which is not 
steep, we entered the territory of Trieste, and 
from its summit one of the most magnificent 
sea views I ever beheld burst upon our sight. 
Nearly two thousand feet below us lay the 
wide expanse of the blue Adriatic, its light 
waves glittering in the sun-beams, occasionally 
shaded by the intercepting clouds. At the 
foot of the mountain, and partly concealed by 
it, appeared Trieste, with its harbour full of 
vessels, lying on a small promontory. Look- 
ing over the town and across the bay the 
eye embraces the whole hilly coast of Istria, 
with the towns of Capo dTstria, Pirano, and 
others; and promontory is seen beyond pro- 
montory till the more distant ones can no longer 
be distinguished from the waves. The right or 
opposite coast, stretching down to Venice, is flat, 
and the last visible point on it is the ancient 
town of Aquilea; but behind this low and 
marshy tract the distant Alps of the Friul are 
seen, covered with eternal snow. After stopping 
the carriage for some time to admire this magni- 
ficent view, we descended the hill by a very 
winding and steep road. Every thing bespoke 




2^ 



TRIESTE. 149 

the approach to a large and commercial city, 
and the road was filled with carts and waggons 
coming and going, loaded with merchandize. 
In some of them we counted twenty horses, in 
another twenty-four oxen, with twelve drivers, 
who made a terrible noise with their mouths as 
well as their whips to animate their strong and 
fine beasts during their ascent. A new road is 
now building which, when finished, will render 
the great number of cattle now obliged to be used 
unnecessary. We reached the gate of Trieste 
about four o'clock, and after driving through 
some fine wide streets wholly paved with flag- 
stones, and across the Ponterosso, a miserable 
little bridge, we took up our quarters at the 
Locanda Grande, in the market-place ; but our 
rooms looked towards the harbour and sea, and 
immediately beneath them we heard the joyous 
noise and bustle of the sailors. What a dif- 
ference between this town and the inland cities of 
Germany ! There all seems dead or asleep, and 
hardly a living soul is to be seen in the streets ; 
here, on the contrary, all is activity and anima- 
tion. The representatives of all nations seem 
assembled here, — Italians, Germans, English, 



150 TRIESTE. 

and Americans, with Greeks and Turks in then- 
national dresses, are seen walking through the 
streets or sitting before the doors of the cafes : 
this latter applies especially to the Turks, who, 
in their graceful costume with their long pipes, 
attract the notice of every stranger unaccus- 
tomed to see individuals of this nation. 

Leaving Sir Humphry to repose in his room, 
I took a walk about the town and harbour. The 
streets are generally broad, well paved, and 

clean, and the houses are lofty and well built. 
The harbour is full of small craft, but I saw but 
one large merchantman, lately arrived from the 
Brazils. Near the Molo san Carlo, a small pier, 
lay a steam-boat which was to start the next 
morning for Venice. To the left of the town, 
looking towards the sea, and at a considerable 
distance from the houses, is the Lazaretto, a large 
and spacious building, close to a basin or dock, 
in which the vessels lie whilst performing qua- 
rantine. After dinner I went with Sir Hum- 
phry to the theatre, which is an elegant and 
lofty building, with five tiers of boxes very 
tastefully ornamented. The piece performed 
was an opera, The Arabs in Gaul, but spite 



TRIESTE. 



151 



of the magnificent decorations and really fine 
music, Sir Humphry soon became tired, and we 
returned to our Shakspeare and ecarte. I 
sleep to-night, for the first time in my life, in 
the bed-room of an Emperor ; a little chamber 
with only one window in it, and with which, I 
think, few Emperors of the present day would 
be content. Above the bed is painted a gorge- 
ous crown and encircling canopy, beneath which, 
on a small marble tablet, are the following 
words: — 

Locus iste Imperatoris 

Josephi Secundi 
Habitatio fuit xv Maji. 

The year was either never mentioned, or has 
been rubbed out. 

9th. The noise of the sailors and the hum of 
business — sounds long foreign to my ear — 
greeted me upon waking this morning, and on 
looking out of my window I saw a number of 
people upon the quay below, buying fish from the 
sailors of some fishing-boats that had just come 
into the harbour. After breakfast I accompanied 
Sir Humphry on a visit to the British Consul, 
Colonel D , who politely promised to send 



152 GROTTO AT CORNEALE. 

Sir Humphry a fisherman who could supply him 
with some living torpedos for his experiments. 
Sir Humphry afterwards rode out on his pony, 
George attending him, whilst I took a walk on 
the hill above the town. I had intended to visit 
the stalactite grotto at Corneale to-day, as Sir 
Humphry, who had seen it ten years ago, said 
it was well worth notice ; but on coming away 

from Colonel D 's I found that it was 

too late. 

10th. I left Trieste early this morning, with 
a guide, to visit the grotto. After a three hour's 
walk over two very long and steep hills, from 
which however the view over the Adriatic, 
with numberless white sails flitting across its 
waves, the two coasts, the harbour with its ship- 
ping, the town and the gardens surrounding it 
planted with cypresses and olives, was magni- 
ficent, we reached Corneale, a small and dirty 
village, and having here provided ourselves 
with a man carrying a large lamp, and some 
boys with candles, proceeded over some very 
rough and stony fields to the grotto. The en- 
trance was not, as I had expected, in the side of 
a hill, but in the open fields, and surrounded by 



GROTTO AT CORNEALE. 153 

a wall. Having lighted our lamp and candles, 
I took off my coat, and we began the descent 
down some very slight wooden stairs, the steps 
and railing of which were, as I afterwards found 
to my cost, not only slippery, but quite rotten 
from the continual dripping. The entrance, or 
hall, is a fine lofty dark vault, supported in the 
middle by one enormous stalactite column. Be- 
yond this the cave becomes narrower, and the 
numberless stalactites of all sizes present a 
greater variety of forms than it is possible to 
describe : immense cauliflowers, trunks of trees, 
fruits ; rounds and ovals of all sizes, from that of 
a marble to globes of many feet in diameter ; 
pyramids rising up from below, and whose bases 
are lost in profound darkness ; myriads of peaks 
hanging from the roof, often invisible to the 
eye, are seen at every step. 

These different forms, the deathlike stillness of 
the cave, the total darkness, except in those 
points where the guides placed themselves so 
as to illuminate the most striking objects; deep 
precipices before and around me, from out of 
which here and there a single snow white column 
rose, formed, and still forming, by the water 



154 GROTTO AT CORNEALE. 

which falls in measured time from the unseen 
roof; the nickering lights of our candles, — all 
this, and the thought of where I should roll to 
were I to slip from the frail steps into one of those 
dark abysses, produced an indescribable feeling 
of awe and fear. Descending further into the 
cavern, we passed by the Lion's head, the Melon, 
the Death's head, and two magnificent single 
pillars, the one plain, the other beautifully fluted, 
both of which upon being struck by the hand 
emit a loud sonorous sound, that thrills mourn- 
fully through the surrounding silence. Beyond 
these we came to the Waterfall, one of the finest 
specimens of stalactites in the cavern ; other 
pillars and pyramids, and last of all to the Bal- 
dachin, or canopy formed of beautifully fluted 
hanging stalactites. Beyond this point the cave 
had not been explored, as the precipices are very 
dangerous. Even the descent to this spot is not 
very safe, being often along very narrow slip- 
pery paths and rotten stairs, or rather ladders. 
On my return I sketched different subjects in 
the cave, and whilst drawing the entrance-hall, 
incautiously sat upon the wooden hand-rail, 
when I heard a sudden crack, and felt that I 



GROTTO AT CORNEALE. 155 

was falling backwards. Not being able to re- 
cover myself, I slipped from rock to rock, turn- 
ing twice head over heels, but without injury, 
and with perfect presence of mind, although I 
expected every instant to be dashed over the 
edge of a precipice. As soon as I felt my fall 
become slower, I stopped myself with my hands, 
with my head downwards, and my heels in the 
air. In this position I remained some minutes, 
not daring to move a finger, till the guide came 
down through the rocks with his lamp to my as- 
sistance ; with his help I regained my feet, 
and found that I had been lying on the very 
verge of a smooth rock, beneath which was a 
dark and impenetrable abyss. My next fall 
would probably have been into eternity. 

After the whirl of my brain had passed 
away, I found, with the exception of some light 
bruises, that I had not injured myself, as the 
rocks were very smooth and round. Having 
reascended, we left the cave, and I sat for a 
long time in the fresh air as I felt very sick. 
The guide and the boy had been exceedingly 
terrified, and still looked as pale as I think I 
must have done myself; nor shall I soon forget 



156 DEPARTURE FROM TRIESTE. 

the shriek they uttered when they saw me fall- 
ing. After a draught of water that was very 
refreshing, though from a dirty pool in the field, 
and paying the man and boys who had been in 
the grotto with me for upwards of two hours, I 
returned to Trieste, where the tailor and a good 
dinner set every thing to rights again. 

Sir Humphry had just received two living 
torpedos, and made some experiments with 
them upon the power and effect of their elec- 
tricity, which he seemed inclined to think of 
a peculiar kind. These finished, he determined 
to quit Trieste to-morrow, and to return to 
Laibach. 

llth. We started from Trieste this morning 
early, and having ascended the hill above the 
town, from whence we had such a beautiful view 
upon our arrival, we turned out of the road and 
drove across the country over very bad roads to 
Wippach, where we did not arrive till evening. 
We had stopped to bait at mid-day in a miser- 
able little village, and after leaving it we lost our 
way, Robert (the coachman) being a perfect 
stranger in this part of the country, and spent 
some hours in vain before we again got into the 



wippach. 157 

right road. Wippach lies in a fine fertile valley 
at the foot of a lofty range of mountains. The 
river of the same name rises close behind the 
town, out of the rock, in the same manner as the 
river Laibach. The trout in this river were the 
object of Sir Humphry's trip hither, and as soon 
as he arrived, though the evening was too far 
advanced to allow of .his fishing, he went to look 
at the river, and found it very foul from rain. 
When he returned to the inn, he dictated to me 
his observations on the experiments with the 
torpedos which he had made at Trieste. 

12tk. In the morning Sir Humphry went out 
to try the fishing in the river, and returned about 
twelve o'clock not having caught anything. We 
then quitted Wippach;, which has nothing at all 
attractive or interesting in it. At the end of the 
town is a large and handsome chateau, belonging 
to the Counts of Wippach, and on the other side 
an extensive cotton manufactory. The drive 
from hence to Trewalchen is steep and hilly, 
the road passing over a lofty ridge of the moun- 
tain. From Trewalchen we went on to Adels- 
berg, where we did not arrive till night, and as 
Sir Humphry said that he should the next morn- 



158 ADELSBERG. 

ing go on to Zirknitz, I determined to visit the 
principal grotto in the night. There are two 
here, the grotto of the Magdalen, long known 
and celebrated as being the only spot in which 
the Proteus Anguinus* had been found; and the 
great grotto, only lately discovered, and more 
remarkable for the variety and grandeur of the 
stalactite formations which it contains. 



* Proteus Anguinus, Siren Anguina, sometimes called the Austrian 
Siren. This rare little animal has as ret only been discovered in the 
subterraneous caverns of Carniola, at Adelsberg, and Sittich, and very 
lately in those of Heiligen stein, near Zirknitz ; and is also mentioned 
in a German journal as having been found in Sicily. In shape it 
much resembles an eel, whence its specific name ; but it has never 
yet been found of more than fifteen or sixteen inches in length, and 
about three-fourths of an inch in diameter. It is either of a pale rose- 
colour or perfectly white, but after having been for some time exposed 
to the light it becomes brown. Its skin is very smooth and even, the 
head somewhat depressed, and with a lengthened obtuse snout ; the 
eyes are situated beneath the skin, and are exceedingly small; on 
each side of the neck are three ramified bronchial gills, of a bright 
blood-colour during the life of the animal. It is furnished with four 
legs or rather appendages, for they appear to be of no use to it, which 
are about three-fourths of an inch long, and the feet of the fore legs 
have three toes, whilst the hind feet have only two. Its motion when 
touched in the water is brisk and rapid, and is entirely produced by 
the action of the tail, unaided by the legs, as I observed was the case 
with one which I procured from a Professor at Laibach. It has very 
fine and sharp teeth, which it seems scarcely to need, having been 
kept for years together in fresh water apparently without any nou- 
rishment, but it has never been known to bring forth young, nor is 
its origin or real abode at all known. From the period of its discovery 
its nature has been a subject of discussion amongst naturalists, some 
imagining it to be the larva of a larger animal, whilst others maintain 
that it forms a new genus ; nor is the question yet determined. 



THE GROTTO. 159 

After having read to Sir Humphry till nearly 
ten, I set out, accompanied by three guides fur- 
nished with lamps and some pounds of candles. 
We walked across the fields for about a mile in 
darkness, the moon not having yet risen, till we 
came to a slight ascent which brought us to a 
door in the mountain. The guides here lighted 
their lamps, and cut the candles into bits, and 
unlocking the door, we entered and found our- 
selves in a low and dark passage. Two of the 
guides went on before with the candles, and I 
followed a few minutes after with the other, the 
only one of the three who spoke German. The 
passage brought us to the top of a rock, where 
we found ourselves in an immense vault, the 
roof and sides of which could not be distin- 
guished by the eye. Below us, at the foot of 
the rock, we heard the rushing of a river, whose 
waters were invisible to us owing to the extreme 
darkness. We saw the other two guides upon 
a frail wooden bridge, which is thrown across 
this subterraneous stream, they having already 
lighted some of the candles, which they were 
engaged in fixing upon the side rail, and in a 



160 ADELSBERG. 

few minutes, more than thirty candles m some 
degree dispelled the darkness which surrounded 
us. The river became visible for about one 
hundred yards on each side of the bridge, flow- 
ing as it were out of total darkness above, and 
passing again into gloom and shade below it. 
The light however was by no means sufficient 
to enable me to discover the roof of this vast 
dome. It is a striking scene, but very different 
from any presented by the grotto of Corneale, 
and a poet might have thought the vault a 
banquetting room for the giants of old, or the 
council-chamber of Lucifer and his host; the 
dark and rushing water the gloomy river Styx, 
dividing him from the kingdom of Pluto, and 
have expected to see the grim ferryman appear 
with his boat. There was however no Charon 
to ferry us over, and we accordingly descended 
the steps in the rock, and crossed the river by 
the tottering and slippery bridge. A steep 
path cut in the rocks on the other side con- 
ducted us to the Little Temple, a smalfvault, whose 
roof and sides were covered with stalactites of 
the most varied and grotesque forms, hanging 



THE GROTTO. 161 

down from the roof, shooting out from the sides, or 
rising as stalagmites* from the floor, some pointed, 
some round, and others flat, thin, and transparent. 
In one part of this temple are inscribed the names 
of the strangers who have visited the grotto. 
From hence we went to the Hall, or Place of 
the Tournament, passing in another vault by the 
Butcher's stall, perhaps one of the most apt 
denominations of the many which the guides 
have given to the numerous larger masses of 
stalactite met with in these caverns. It stands 
alone, projecting from the walls of the vault, 
and somewhat resembles a pulpit in form. One 
of the guides enters this stall with a lamp, and 
illuminates the different joints of limestone 
meat, sausages, hams, &c, which hang around. 
The Tournier-platz or Place of the Tournament, 
is a lofty and extensive cavern, the floor of which 
is formed of very fine sand, and is exceedingly 
level and firm. The shape of the vault is oval, and 
the sides have some slight resemblance to an am- 
phitheatre. On Whit-Monday the whole of the 

* Stalagmites are inverted stalactites, whose base is fixed to the 
ground, whilst the point is continually rising to a greater height by 
the gradual dripping of the water from the roof. 

M 



162 ADELSBERG. 

grotto is illuminated, and hundreds flock to be- 
hold this curious scene, the Tournier-platz being- 
arranged as a ball-room, and in which the visitors 
dance till a very late hour. From thence we went 
through long passages and caverns, each of which 
presents something remarkable. In one, a large 
pillar rises from the ground, which, on being 
struck with a stone or stick, gives out a sound 
resembling the deep and sonorous tone of a tolling 
bell; and in another, stands a large fluted pillar, 
to which the guides give the strange name of 
the Kanonen-Saule zu Moskau, or the Pillar of 
Canons at Moscau. In another part of the 
cavern we see a vase, on the top of a small pillar, 
constantly full of water, which falls into it, drop 
by drop, from the roof; it is perfectly clear, and 
icy cold. Beyond this font, we came to the great 
curtain, the most striking single stalactite in the 
whole cavern. The limestone here descends in 
many a waving and beautiful fold from the roof, 
from a height of upwards of twenty feet, and pro- 
jecting about six feet out from the rock. The 
whole mass is exceedingly thin, and is bordered 
by a stripe of red. Seen from a distance, when 
the guides hold their lamps behind it, the effect 



THE GROTTO. 163 

is highly striking, and the spectator can hardly 
believe that the transparent curtain before him 
is formed of hard stone. The red colour in 
the edge of this mass of limestone, is the only 
instance of the kind I met with in the grotto, 
the general colour of the stalactites being either 
pure white or whitish brown : and they are 
often covered with a crust of very fine crystals. 
At some distance beyond the curtain, the cave 
divides into two branches, one of which ends 
with a large block of limestone, that bears the 
name of the high altar; the other has been 
rarely trodden by the foot of a stranger, for my 
guide said that this was only the second time 
that he had been there, since the discovery of 
that part of the cave, by him and another of the 
men who were with me, six or seven years ago. 
It extends for a considerable way, till all further 
progress is stopped by a large pool of water, 
over which the guides said no one had ever 
crossed. This pool did not appear to me to 
be of any very great extent, and I felt per- 
suaded, that with the help of a few long poles, 
it would have been possible to have passed over 
the slippery rocks on its sides ; we had, how- 
m 2 



164 THE GROTTO. 

ever, nothing of the kind with us, and I was 
obliged to abandon the idea, nor did the guides 
appear at all inclined to continue our peregrina- 
tions, having already penetrated to a greater 
distance than usual. I carefully examined the 
water, but in vain, to see if I could discover 
anything like a proteus, and I asked the guide 
if on his former visit he had seen any animal in 
the pool, but he said he had not. The paths 
through the cavern are generally very good, 
and broad enough for two or three persons 
to walk abreast, and have in many places been 
widened and levelled by art, but the road from 
the curtain to the end of the grotto, passes over 
a chaos of rocks and large broken stalactites ; 
these, though now united by the all-binding 
lime-water into shapeless masses of rock, for- 
merly composed the roof, but have now given 
place to newer formations, so that even in these 
subterraneous caverns, as in all other of nature's 
works, man beholds destruction only as making 
way for regeneration. The process is one of 
the slowest, but sure in its effects ; an accident, 
the shock of an earthquake for example, may 
strew the floor of the cavern with the stalactites 



DEPARTURE FROM ADELSBERG. 165 

which hang from the roof, yet the impregnated 
water flows from above, deposits the limestone, 
and in a few centuries, the roof is again orna- 
mented with its curious and beautiful fretwork. 
Retracing our steps through the different halls, 
temples, and passages, we again found ourselves 
on the banks of the subterraneous river. This 
is the Laibach, which rising in the plain above 
Adelsberg, enters the mountain, and after flow- 
ing through the cavern and underground for a 
considerable distance, again appears at the foot 
of the hill near Planina. We crossed the little 
bridge, ascended the rocks, and taking a last 
look around the vast and dark cupola by which 
we had first entered, I bade adieu to the caverns 
of Adelsberg. On coming out of the mountain, 
the air felt very cold, for the temperature within 
had been very agreeable, almost warm. It was 
past one o'clock, so that we had been three 
hours under ground. The moon was up, and 
guided by her clear light, we soon reached the 
inn, where I dreamt till morning of grottos, 
and caverns and their spirit inhabitants. 

13th. We left Adelsberg this morning, and 
after a drive of about three hours through a wild 



166 THE ZIRKNITZER-SEE. 

and hilly country, we arrived at the village of 
Zirknitz, on the borders of the celebrated Zirk- 
nitzer-See. The inn, though small, had two 
decent rooms, and Sir Humphry determined 
to remain here for a day or two, in order to 
shoot quails, which abound in the neighbour- 
hood ; he accordingly went out in the afternoon 
with his gun, accompanied by the innkeeper, 
who had recommended himself to him by speak- 
ing Italian ; and I went in the meantime to look 
at the lake. Its banks are formed by mountains 
of no great height, completely covered with forests 
of pine, and in the lake are three islands, each of 
which has a different name. On the largest, called 
Vomek, is a little village; the other two, Goritza 
and Malagoritza, are smaller and barren. The 
lake itself is of an oblong form, and, as I ascer- 
tained from " The Chronicle of Carniola," (a 
voluminous and old work on the history and 
geography of this part of Austria, by Baron 
Valvasor, and the only book to be found in 
the inn,) about one German mile (four and three 
quarters English) in length, and rather more 
than half a one in breadth. Its depth varies, but 
it is no where considerable. In different parts 



THE ZIRKNITZER-SEE. 167 

of it are large and deep conical holes, Valvasor 
says eighteen, each of which has also a name : 
the chief of them are Koten, Zeschenza, Mala- 
bonarza, Velkioberk, Sfc, and through these holes 
the lake is filled with water. This generally 
takes place annually, in October or November, 
and the water again disappears through these 
holes in the beginning of summer. 

In twenty days after the disappearance of the 
water, grass springs up, and produces very good 
hay; numbers of birds flock to the fields, and 
the bed of the lake then becomes a sporting 
ground. The disappearance of the waters, how- 
ever, is by no means certain, for sometimes a 
whole year will elapse without the lake becom- 
ing dry, while at times it will sink and re-appear 
twice, or even thrice, in one year. At the end 
of the lake, near Zirknitz, are two large open- 
ings in a rock called Malakarlouza and Valka- 
karlouza, through which the water runs off when 
the lake rises higher than usual. During the 
winter the lake is generally frozen over. The 
temperature and colour of its water are similar 
to that of the other lakes in this part of the 
country, though the fish which inhabit it, chiefly 



168 CAVES OF ST. KANZIAN. 

pike, are said to be unwholesome. By what 
means and from whence this lake is filled, it 
is very difficult to say ; the most probable con- 
jecture is that it is supplied by some vast reser- 
voir of water in the interior of the earth, which 
may also be the feeder of the many subterrane- • 
ous rivers with which the surrounding country 
abounds. Not a single stream flows out of the 
lake, but six or seven small rivulets fall into it, 
the largest of which is the Zirknitzbach. In the 
evening Sir Humphry returned from his sport, 
bringing with him some quails and a few 
snipes. 

14th. Sir Humphry again went out shooting 
in the morning, and I went to see the caves 
of St. Kanzian, with a lad, who spoke a little 
German, as a guide. These caves are situated 
about four miles from Zirknitz, and are merely 
large and deep natural caverns, through which 
a small river runs, which again appears about 
half a mile further, in a beautiful fertile val- 
ley, through which it flows for a short dis- 
tance, when it passes under a natural bridge 
of rock, on the other side of which it disap- 
pears, and does not again rise till near Adels- 



GROTTO OF HEILIGEN-KREUTZ 169 

berg. Although it has here no particular name, 
it is probably the same as the Laibach river, 
and may take its rise from the lake of Zirk- 
nitz. The natural bridge under which it flows 
before its disappearance, is a fine arch of rock, 
from thirty to forty feet in height, covered 
with trees on the top, between which are seen 
the remains of an old church, dedicated to St. 
Kanzian. 

lhth. Sir Humphry's sport yesterday not hav- 
ing proved so good as he expected, he went 
to-day, on his pony, up to the mountains with the 
innkeeper, to see if he could not shoot a Stein- 
huhn, or alpine partridge, and I went with my 
guide of yesterday to see the grotto of Heili- 
gen-kreutz, where, he told me, a little white 
fish with four feet and two red fins on its neck, 
had been lately found. From this description I 
knew it to be the proteus, the inhabitant of the 
Magdelena grotto at Adelsberg; and the hope 
of finding this animal in the caves at the other 
end of the lake of Zirknitz, induced me to go 
thither. We coasted round the lake, passing 
through many little hamlets on its banks, till we 
arrived at the end of it, when we turned up a 



170 GROTTO OF HEILIGEN-KREUTZ. 

side valley, which brought us to the foot of the 
mountain of Heiligen-kreutz. We here found 
two small huts, in one of which was an old man, 
who agreed to be our guide to the grotto, and 
who furnished us with large pieces of fir-wood 
for torches. After an ascent of half an hour up 
the mountain, we came to a great hole, which 
was the entrance of the cavern. Here the 
guide put a bit of ignited fungus or tinder into 
a handful of dry moss, and whirling it round 
with rapidity, soon produced a flame, at which we 
lighted our torches. We then scrambled down 
into the hole, and entered a long and lofty 
passage, the floor of which was covered with 
great stones and masses of rock, over which it 
was with great difficulty that we could proceed, 
and the roof and sides presented nothing but 
dark and rugged rock, unadorned by stalactites. 
After advancing for some hundred yards through 
this passage, we came to a running stream of 
water of considerable breadth, but only six or 
eight inches deep. We walked through this 
for some time, till it fell with a deafening noise 
into a large hole on one side of the cave, pro- 
bably into some deep cavern below. The pas- 



GROTTO OF HEILIGEN-KREUTZ. 171 

sage then turned to the left, and conducted us 
into a small round vault, from the roof and sides 
of which hung a considerable number of stalac- 
tites. This the old man said was the end of the 
cavern, and finding it so, I felt there was nothing 
to recompense one for the fatigue of a walk of 
ten miles, and the scramble over the rocks in the 
passage. During our course through the stream, 
as well as in the many large holes filled with 
water, I had in vain looked for the proteus, 
which however the old man assured me had 
been found by the peasants in the stream dur- 
ing its course through the cavern, and that it 
had also been cast up by it, when swelled by 
rain, near Laas, a small town about five miles 
distant, where this subterraneous stream again 
appears upon the surface. Quitting the cavern, 
I returned to Zirknitz, which I reached late in 
the afternoon, with a very good appetite, for all 
that we had partaken of since an early breakfast, 
was a few smoked pears and a pint of wine, 
sourer than the sourest vinegar, which, with a 
bit of black bread, were the only eatables af- 
forded by one of the village inns of the banks 
of the lake of Zirknitz. Sir Humphry had 



172 LAIBACH. 

returned from his pursuit of the mountain par- 
tridge, nearly as fatigued and dissatisfied with 
his ill-success as I was with mine, and he deter- 
mined upon returning to Laibach to-morrow. 

16th — 30th. Quitting Zirknitz, and driving 
through Planina and Ober-Laibach, we returned 
to Laibach, where we remained in our old quar- 
ters till the 30th. Sir Humphry, as usual, occu- 
pying the day in shooting or fishing, and now 
and then in completing his experiments on the 
torpedo, by comparing the results of the elec- 
tricity of this fish with the effects produced by a 
very small voltaic pile. He found them to be 
essentially different in their action, and summed 
up the whole series of his experiments and ob- 
servations in a long letter to the Royal Society.* 
He has at last met with a pair of carriage horses 
that please him, and has bought them for four hun- 
dred florins (40/.), so that he now intends travel- 
ling with his own four horses. The weather has 
been getting colder and colder, but I think that 
nothing less than the sight of the snow that fell 
to-day (30th) would have determined his de- 

* Transactions of the Royal Society for 1829. 



DEPARTURE FROM LAIBACH. 173 

parture, which is now fixed for to-morrow, when 
we start for Italy and Rome. 

Slst We have at last quitted Laibach, and I 
never recollect having left any place, not even 
the most wretched village, with the joy and de- 
light I experienced on quitting Detella's inn, 
which has so long been for me an abode of 
listlessness and ennui. We slept this night at 
Planina, in the same bad inn which we stopped 
at on our trip to Trieste. 

November 1st We set out this morning from 
Planina, and drove over the road we had for- 
merly passed to Wippach. The roads as far as 
this town were very hard and slippery, the snow 
which had fallen having frozen during the night, 
but as soon as we passed the mountains between 
Adelsberg and Wippach the scene was changed ; 
we had left the winter and wintry country be- 
hind us, and found ourselves in a valley, where 
the trees were still adorned with the fine tints of 
autumn, and where the temperature was delight- 
ful. Leaving Wippach, we entered the province 
of Friuli, and drove on along a fine high road to 
Gorizia or Gorz, where we did not arrive till 
late in the evening. The country is fine ; it 



174 GORIZIA. 

appears to be well cultivated, and the vines hang 
in festoons from tree to tree. At Gorizia, Italian 
is the only language spoken, and with the lan- 
guage the people seemed also to have changed, 
for instead of the slow, awkward, and often in- 
solent German servants, we had here quick and 
intelligent attendants. 

2nd. Leaving Gorizia, in which town there is 
very little interesting, at one o'clock, we crossed 
the Isonzo, a beautifully clear and broad river. 
The roads were excellent, and before us and on 
our right we had the magnificent chain of the 
Julian Alps, still free from snow. Palmanova, 
where we spent the night, is a strong fortress, 
but a miserable little town with a corresponding- 
inn. 

3?*d. The road from Palmanova to Codroipo 
lies through a flat country, chiefly vineyards, 
and is lined on each side with mulberry trees. 
Between Codroipo and Pordenone, we passed 
over a magnificent wooden bridge across the 
Tagliamento, the bed of which is here nearly a 
mile in breadth, and shows what a broad and 
wild river it must be when swollen by the 
melting of the snows. Upon asking a man on 



TREVISO. 175 

the road the distance to the next town, he only 
answered us by holding up his five fingers, as 
much as to say five miles ; a quick mode of 
expression which a German peasant would never 
have arrived at. The dress of the peasants was 
as much changed as the climate ; instead of the 
black leather breeches, huge boots, and sheepskin 
jacket of the Krainish boor, we here saw striped 
cotton trowsers, a white cloth or flannel jacket, 
and shoes and stockings. We to-day, for the first 
time, saw many donkeys on the road, and little 
one-horse carriages, with one person sitting in 
them and the driver standing behind. Por- 
denone is a small town, with a fine view of the 
Friuli Alps in the distance. 

4th. We quitted Pordenone and the Frioul, 
and dined at Cornegliano, a small old town in 
the province of Venice, and on quitting it we 
caught a glimpse of the Alps in the distance, and 
after a long drive through flat and low lands, 
arrived in the evening at Treviso. An ancient 
Roman gateway of beautiful architecture forms 
the entrance this town, the streets of which 
however are narrow and dirty. The Albergo 
Reale is a very good inn. 

5th. We quitted Treviso early this morning 



176 PADUA. 

for Padua, with the Ugonian or Paduan hills 
in front of us. About two miles out of the town, 
looking across the marshes, we saw Venice with 
all her towers rising, as it were, out of them. 
We were only about five miles from this, the 
second most interesting city of Italy, nor could 
I help expressing a wish to see it. Sir Hum- 
phry, however, said that he was determined never 
again to enter it, for he had, upon a former 
journey, been detained there upwards of an 
hour about his passport. A little beyond 
Mestre, a dirty and ruinous town, where pas- 
sengers generally embark for Venice, we came 
to the Brenta, and drove along its banks to 
Dolo, a small village, where we dined. The 
road is lined with fine, but mostly ruinous villas, 
in the light Italian style of architecture, and 
between Dolo and Padua we passed by a mag- 
nificent palace belonging to the Viceroy of 
Milan. We did not arrive at Padua till it was 
nearly dark, and entered the town by an old 
Roman gateway, similar to that at Treviso. 
The streets through which we passed were 
narrow and dirty, but furnished on both sides 
with arcades for foot passengers. 

6th. We left Padua at eight o'clock this morn- 



FERRARA. 177 

ing, passing through the Piazza San Antonio, 
a fine open square ornamented with statues, and 
at one end of which is the cathedral church of St. 
Antonio, said to be one of the churches contain- 
ing the greatest number of votive altars in Italy. 

The country between Padua and Monselice, 
an insignificant little town where we stopped 
to bait, is pretty. Crossing the Adige by a 
flying bridge, we drove on to Rovigo ; a town 
with about eight thousand inhabitants, but with 
apparently nothing remarkable in it. 

1th. After leaving Rovigo, we came in a few 
hours to the Po at Polsella, a fine deep river? 
but very turbid and rapid. A poste further we 
crossed it by a flying bridge, and quitting the 
Austrian territories, we entered the Papal states. 
The Douane is situated upon the bank of the 
river, and although the lascia-passare, for which 
Sir Humphry had written to Rome from Laibach, 
was not arrived, he had no difficulty in passing 
unexamined, a little money being, it seems, here 
as good as the best pass. We then drove on 
to Ferrara, where we lodged at the Tre Mori, a 
very good inn, though badly situated in a very 
narrow back street. 



178 BOLOGNA. 

In the afternoon I walked through the old, 
deserted, and often grass-grown streets of the 
town. In the Piazza Ariostea stands a fine 
old column, and the church in the great square 
is a fine building externally, the front consisting 
of numerous rows of arches one above the other. 
This and the ancient castle or palace of the 
house of Este, a large moated brick building, 
with numerous square towers, in one of which 
the dungeon of Tasso is still shown, are all that 
is worth seeing here. 

&th. We quitted Ferrara in very bad weather, 
it having snowed all night, and snow and sleet 
still continued to fall during the day. We 
stopped to bait at a lone house, which proved 
to be a very large and good inn, and then 
proceeded after dinner to Bologna, which we 
entered in company with three other English 
carriages. This is a very fine city, with good 
streets, on each side of which are lofty arcades, 
so that even in the worst weather one can walk 
through the greater part of the town without 
getting wet. In the evening I finished reading 
the "Castle of Otranto" to Sir Humphry, for 
the second time. 



BOLOGNA. 



179 



9th. Sir Humphry dictated a letter this morn- 
ing to Professor Moricliini at Rome, and I after- 
wards walked about the town whilst he paid a 

visit to Madame M , the wife of a sculptor 

to whom he had been introduced when he was 
formerly in Italy. The streets appear well 
built and modern, though very dirty, and the 
houses are for the most part fine and lofty ; but 
there are very few grand single buildings or 
churches; many of the latter are only to be 
distinguished from private houses under the 
arcades, by a coloured drapery hung over the 
door. The Neptune which surmounts the 
fountain in the square of the cathedral, a work 
by Jean de Bologna, certainly has its merits 
as a statue, but the poor water-god enjoys so 
little of his element, that he can scarcely pro- 
vide for the wants of his immediate neighbours. 
After wandering quite alone through the town, 
the whole morning and a part of the afternoon, 
I returned to the hotel St. Marco. Madame 

M having invited Sir Humphry to take 

a seat in her box at the theatre in the even- 
ing, I went to see the play and ballet, and 
was very much pleased with each. The house 
n 2 



180 RIMINI. 

is spacious and grand, but dark; the spec- 
tacle showy, and the singing and ballet very- 
good. 

10£A. A wet and rainy day. We left Bologna 
at eight in the morning, and had a dreary and 
unpleasant day's journey through a flat country, 
to Faenza, having only stopped to bait at a 
litle village on the road. 

11th. Left Faenza this morning, and arrived 
in the evening at Rimini, passing through Forti 
and Cecena. Every step we now advance is 
on heroic ground; and before entering Rimini 
near Savignano, we passed over the Rubicon, a 
little insignificant stream, though once the 
boundary of the most powerful state in the 
world. The bridge over the little river which 
flows by the gates of Rimini, is said to have 
stood for twenty centuries; and in the middle 
of the town is an ancient triumphal arch nearly 
as old. It was built by Augustus on his return 
from his victory over Marc Antony, and is a 
fine simple arch of stone, though now patched 
up with bricks. The town is small and dirty, 
and the Leon Bianco is a wretched inn. 

12th. Leaving Rimini we drove along the 



FANO. 181 

coast of the Adriatic, close to the sea shore. 
We saw the distant Appenines on our right, 
as yet only low hills covered with vineyards 
and towns, one of which, San Marino, situated 
on the top of a hill, is a small independent 
republic of about five thousand souls. Having 
dined at a little village on the road, we drove on 
through Pesaro to Fano. The surrounding 
country is rather mountainous, and seems to 
abound in defiles and narrow passes, which 
may easily account for the defeat of the Cartha- 
ginians by the Romans, in this neighbourhood. 
Fano is a small town, lying close upon the 
sea. The inn where we passed the night was 
remarkably good. 

ISth. We left Fano early in the morning, 
and with it the Adriatic; and turning off to 
the right, we entered into the Appenines and 
dined at Fossombrone, (probably modernized 
from Forum Sempronii,) a small and very old 
town, situated on the side of a hill not far from 
the spot where Hasdrubal was defeated and 
slain by the Roman Consuls, Nero and Sem- 
pronius. The country here begins to be very 
fine, but is not at all alpine. Through a wide 



182 CAGLI. 

and fertile valley runs the Metauro, a beauti- 
fully clear green stream. Quitting Fossombrone, 
we soon came to the Forli, a celebrated pass 
in the mountains, and a work of the old Romans. 
The rock in a narrow glen on the side of a small 
stream has been cut away in order to make the 
road, which then runs for some hundred yards 
through an arched gallery hollowed out of the 
solid stone ; this work appears as if very lately 
finished, and the sublime and rocky scene around, 
beautifully relieved by the fine and varied au- 
tumnal tints of the shrubs, and by the white 
and foaming stream, is a most fitting spot 
for such a grand undertaking. Descending 
from the pass into the valley on the other side, 
we drove on through Aqualagna to Cagli, where 
we remained for the night, in a most wretched 
inn. 

14th. We had a long drive from Cagli to 
Sigillo through a fine mountainous country, 
passing over some small Roman bridges, easily 
distinguished from those of modern times, by 
the gigantic size of the blocks of stone of which 
they are formed. Another remarkable object on 
this road is a bridge of great height, built over a 



CAGLI TO SPOLETO. 183 

deep ravine, in order to preserve the level of 
the road. It consists of a small arch thrown 
across the mountain stream, above which a com- 
plete circle or tunnel of nearly one hundred feet in 
diameter, has been built, and thus forms the sup- 
port of the road. In one part of the mountain 
we observed some very curiously carved strata 
in the limestone rock which composes this chain. 
From Sigillo we proceeded in the afternoon 
to Nocera, passing on the road many a hill of 
stones surmounted by a wooden cross, the only 
monument of the unfortunate travellers who 
had perished in these wild and solitary spots, by 
the hands of the ferocious banditti, which still 
too often infest these parts of the Appenines. 
It was dark when we reached Nocera, and we 
here found the hotel as bad if not worse than 
at Cagli. 

1 5th. We left Nocera at about half-past seven 
in the morning and reached Foligno by eleven. 
This latter place is a large and very dirty town, 
nor does there seem to be anything interesting 
in it or its vicinity. We quitted it at two 
o'clock, and drove on to Spoleto, passing along 



184 SPOLETO. 

the banks of the Clytumnus, which Byron 
with truth calls 

" A mirror and a bath for Beauty's youngest daughters," 

for every plant and leaf at the bottom, seems as 
if viewed through a clear and spotless crystal. 
A little above the source of this river, stands 
the temple of its god, of small and delicate pro- 
portions. The front is still in good preservation, 
but the roof is covered with tiles, and the sides 
are patched with bricks ; and it is now appa- 
rently used as a stable or pig-sty, and the waters 
of the stream are polluted by ass-drivers and 
water- women. 

We are now driving over roads once covered 
with the Carthaginian legions led on by Han- 
nibal, rushing in all the fire of conquest from 
the field of Thrasymene ; and in the evening we 
arrived at Spoleto, the town which offered him 
such stout resistance, when on his march to 
Rome, and before which he lay a fortnight. It 
lies on a hill, which renders the streets exceed- 
ingly steep ; and besides this, they are narrow, 
dark and dirty. The only remarkable object 
in it is the gate called Hannibal's Gate, which 



185 

is very ancient, and bears the following inscrip- 
tion on a marble tablet, celebrating his defeat 
and retreat from this town. 

HANNIBAL 

CAESIS AD THRASYMENUM ROMANIS 

INFESTO AGMINB URBEM ROMAM PETENS 

AD SPOLETUM MAGNA STRAGE SUORUM REPULSUS 

INSIGNE PORTAE NOJ1EX FECIT. 

So much for the days of old ! A battalion of 
French troops would however now hardly allow 
themselves to be repulsed by the descendants 
of these victors of Hannibal. 

1 6th. Leaving Spoleto, we passed by a very 
lofty aqueduct, which conveys the water from 
the mountains across the valley to the town. 
A mile or two further on we came to a very 
long hill, where we had two oxen added to our 
four horses, to ascend it. The descent on the 
other side to Terni is still longer : the pass 
through the mountains is in many places exceed- 
ingly narrow, and on each side of the road are 
lofty rocks ; the mountains are wild and mostly 
uncultivated, and are chiefly covered with dark 
laurel bushes ; on the w T hole road there is not a 
village for the poste, and half a dozen houses at 
Stretura hardly deserve the name of one. A 



186 TERNI. 

mile or two before Terni the valley widens, 
and the dark laurel trees give place to groves of 
olives and green fields, whilst here and there a 
tall cypress is seen rising from out of the gar- 
dens near the town. I was much disappointed 
here, in not being able to see the celebrated 
Falls of the Velino, which are only five miles 
distant from Terni; but as Sir Humphry only 
stopped to bait, it was impossible for me to do 
so. There were many carriages at the inn, 
English, French, and Russian, but the company 
to whom they belonged were all gone to see the 
Falls. 

Between Terni and Narni, we entered upon 
a wide and open though still hilly country, 
through which the Velino winds slowly along. 
Narni is certainly the most beautifully situated 
town that I have seen in the Appenines, lying 
at the side of a hill, at the foot of which the 
green waters of the Nera roll through a deep 
romantic glen, out of whose wooded sides 
gigantic masses of rock are seen to rise, in and 
upon which many old dwellings, now uninha- 
bited, are discovered. The road from hence 
to Lavenga is fine and hilly, and between this 



MOUNT SORACTE. 187 

latter and Otricoli, the mountains open, and 
show us in the distance Mount Soracte, 



" which from out the plain 

Heaves, like a long swept wave about to break, 
And on the curl hangs pausing," 



the Tiber winding slowly along, and, still further, 
another chain of distant mountains. The inn 
at Otricoli was the worst of the many bad ones 
we have met with among the Appenines, for 
there was literally nothing to be had in the 
house ; and the only waiter who was to be seen 
was drunk. 

17 th. We left these wretched quarters 
at seven in the morning; and quitting the 
Appenines, soon afterwards crossed the Tiber, 
already a tolerably broad, but very muddy river. 
The whole country is volcanic, and the river 
seems to flow here through the crater of some 
tremendous volcano of a former world. At 
Borghetto, on the other side of the river, are 
the remains of an old castle, probably gothic. 
The sides of the roads, from hence to Citta 
Castellana, contain large masses of white garnet, 
and we passed by many craters, small and large, 



188 CITTA. 

some only broad and deep pits, with trees grow- 
ing out of the clefts of the lava rock ; others 
filled up with earth, and now turned into culti- 
vated fields. Citta, or Civitta Castellana, is 
probably the ancient Veii, and must have been 
a very strong place in former days. The citadel, 
from which it takes its present name, is a large 
fort of half Roman, half Gothic architecture. 
Before entering the town we crossed a small 
river, which runs deep below through a wild and 
romantic fissure in the lava rocks, which sur- 
round the town, and of which the greater part 
of the houses are built. We passed through the 
town and over a bridge erected by Pius VI. 
A pompous latin inscription consigns the name 
of this pope to posterity, for having ordered 
this bridge to be built. It is a good strong 
bridge, but nothing more. The Romans of old 
built and worked, and let others talk ; those of 
the present day talk much and do nothing. 
We then drove on to Nepi, a small village, 
where we dined, and from hence through Mon- 
terosa to Baccano, which only consists of two 
inns, the poste and another, where the vetturini 
generally stop, Sir Humphry chose the latter, 



APPROACH TO ROME. 189 

which we found very good. To-morrow we 
shall enter Rome, which is only two postes 
distant from us. 

18th. Left Baccano at eight in the morn- 
ing, and in about half an hour, from the top 
of the first hill, saw the Eternal City, with her 
seven hills, her towers, cupolas, monuments, and 
palaces, immediately before us, becoming more 
and more distinct as the sun dispersed the mists 
of the morning, and bringing with them the re- 
collections of the times and deeds of old, and of 
the heroes, statesmen, orators, and poets, whose 
former dwellings were there, and whose fame 
still fills the world with admiration. On our left 
lay the long chain of the Appenines, above 
which rose Monte Velino, and some other of 
the more distant and snow-clad mountains, 
whilst nearer to Rome was seen the Alban 
Mount, and the hills of Tivoli. On the right 
lay the wide outstretching campagna, beyond 
which, although Sir Humphry doubted it, I am 
sure I saw the straight blue line of the Medi- 
terranean. The carriage rolled on from hill to 
hill, each of which was covered with villas 
surrounded by trees, amongst which the tall 



190 ROME. 

cypress and the magnificent fan, or Mediterra- 
nean pine, were pre-eminent. At La Storta we 
reached the last hill : 



" Now the brow 



We gain enraptured ; beauteously distinct 
The numerous porticoes and domes upswell, 
With obelisks and columns interposed, 
And pine, and fir, and oak; so fair a scene 
Sees not the dervise from the spiral tomb 
Of ancient Chammos, while his eye beholds 
Proud Memphis' reliques o'er the Egyptian plain : 
Nor hoary hermit from Hymettus' brow, 
Though graceful Athens in the vale beneath." 

From hence a short drive brought us to the 
Tiber and to the Ponte Molle, a bridge of brick, 
built on the ancient foundations of the Pons 
Molvii, in front of which stands a handsome 
gateway and tower. Crossing this bridge, we 
drove along a straight broad street upwards of 
a mile in length, which ends at the Porta del Po- 
polo, the entrance into Rome, and a magnificent 
entrance it is. The gate itself is fine, though 
not very elegant, but the view through it into 
the Piazza del Popolo is grand in the extreme, 
and strongly impresses the stranger with the 
feeling that he is entering into a magnificent 



ROME. 



191 



city, the metropolis of religion and of the arts. 
In the middle of the Piazza, which is formed of 
two large semicircles, rises a superb obelisk of 
red granite, covered with hierogliphicks ; four 
lions of white marble spouting water into the 
basins before them, form part of the pedestal. 
In the centre of the back of each semicircle is 
a very elegant fountain in the shape of a co- 
lossal shell, and surmounted by groups of gi- 
gantic statues. Looking across the Piazza, three 
long streets present themselves to view; the 
middle the Corso ; the one on the left, the 
Strada del Babuino; and to the right, the 
Strada di Ripetta. The ends of these streets, 
facing the Piazza, are formed by two elegant 
churches, perfectly similar in architecture, and 
above the left semicircle are seen the gardens 
of the Monte Pincio, the ascent to which, 
adorned by columns and statues, is not yet 
finished. 

Having found our lascia passare at the gate, 
we were permitted to drive to the hotel directly, 
and were not first conducted to the custom- 
house, as is the case with those who enter Rome 
without having procured, through some friend, 



19*2 ROME. 

the permission to pass, which is only given by 
the secretary of state. 

At Serny's Hotel de Londres, on the Piazza 
di Spagna, a large and open square, we were 
extremely well accommodated. It is a very 
large and grand establishment, occupying three 
different houses, and of course every thing is in 
the first style. What most strikes a stranger in 
the streets of Rome, are the numerous shops 
of mosaics, gems, and trinkets in marble and 
bronze, and a month and a fortune might be 
spent by those who have nothing better to do 
with their time and money, in admiring and 
selecting such objects. The Corso, or high 
street, the theatre of all the festivities during 
the carnival, is every afternoon thronged with 
carriages, which drive up and down in two 
lines, the one going, the other coming. This 
seems to be one of the principal amuse- 
ments of the higher classes of Rome, and a 
senseless enjoyment it appears to me, for the 
greater part of the street is narrow, badly 
paved, and dark. The number of spectators 
from four till six o'clock, however, is very great. 
French is spoken in almost every shop, and the 



THE COLOSSEUM. 193 

number of English is so great, that one hears 
nearly as much of that language spoken in the 
streets as of Italian. 

21sL This afternoon I went to the cqlosseum, 
where I sat for some hours under the last of 
the upper arches of the outside circle, looking 
towards the magnificent church of St. John La- 
teran, over part of the ancient walls of Rome, 
and the remaining arches of two old aqueducts, 
and down upon gardens and vineyards, in many 
of which are the ruins of ancient buildings and 
temples ; whilst the view over the surrounding 
campagna is bounded by the blue Appenines, 
and on the right by the Alban Mount. From 
the inner wall I looked down from row to row 
over the dark and ruined arches of the seats, now 
picturesquely overgrown with shrubs, ivy, and 
grass, and which were then beautifully tinged 
with the rays of the setting sun, into the vast 
arena beneath, formerly the scene of many a 
savage sport for the amusement of a cruel 
people, but now only ornamented by the broken 
shafts and capitals of pillars which once adorned 
it; and disfigured by the many altars erected by 
pious devotees, breaking the harmony of the 



194 R03IE. 

whole, and only serving to shew the magnitude 
and beauty of the ancient pillars, contrasted with 
the smallness and insignificance of the modern 
ones. In the centre of the arena, a large wooden 
cross has been erected, which is devoutly kissed 
by the lips of every pious Catholic who passes 
by. Immediately opposite to me the circle of 
arches was broken, and let in the view of the 
near and distant country, where many a tall 
cypress and pine rose amid the foundations of 
the old palace of the Caesars, to the left of 
which, amid the trees, appeared the pyramidal 
monument of Caius Sestius. From another side 
I looked down upon the triumphal arches of 
Constantine and Titus, upon the colossal remains 
of the baths of Caracalla, and upon the ruins of 
temples and palaces, and over modern Rome, 
to the distant cupola of St. Peter's. 

Quitting this mighty ruin, which, together 
with the arch of Titus, the Popes have been, 
and still are, engaged in patching up with bricks 
and mortar, thus destroying the harmony and 
beauty of the ancient architecture, I returned 
to Serny's through the ancient Roman Forum, 
(now the Campo Vaccino,) where lie the chief 



THE CAMPO VACCINO. * 195 

relics of the former grandeur of the queen of 
cities. Here are the arches of Constantine, of 
Titus, and of Septimus Severus; the ruins of 
temples, baths, and imperial palaces; ruins which 
have afforded to antiquarians so much matter for 
research and for dispute, and which are regu- 
larly described in the works of every modern 
traveller in Italy. 

3rd December. We remained at Serny's till 
the first of December, as Sir Humphry found it 
no easy thing to find a lodging suited to him 
so late in the year; on the 28th, however, he 
found apartments at the corner of the Via di 
Pietra, which he liked, and we entered them on 
the 1st of December. They are situated in a 
good part of the city, and look out on the 
Corso. 

3lst. Our daily life has been hitherto as 
monotonous as possible. Sir Humphry sees no 
society, and wishes to see none, and his only 
pleasure and amusement seems to consist in 
shooting. He drives out every day in the sur- 
rounding campagna, often to a distance of twelve 
and fourteen miles from Rome, when he gets 
out and rides on his pony over the fields in 
o2 



196 



ROME. 



search of quails or snipes. On his return, when 
he is not too much fatigued, he dictates to me 
a continuation of his "Vision," which he thinks 
of forming into a series of dialogues on religion 
and other subjects ; and our evenings are spent, 
as they have been ever since we left Calais, with 
a game or two at cards, and with my reading 
to him different works, principally English 
and French, which he procures from a circu- 
lating library in the Corso. I have formed no 
acquaintances, as Sir Humphry wishes me not 
to do so ; but when I have copied off the morn- 
ing's dictation, I often take a solitary walk in 
the gardens of the Pincio, to St. Peter's, or to 
the Colosseum. 

On Christmas-day I went to hear the Pope 
celebrate grand mass at St. Maria Maggiore. 
The whole of the interior of this beautiful church 
was superbly illuminated, more especially near 
and round the high altar, in front of which the 
Swiss guards were drawn up in a semi-circle, 
and prevented all who were not dressed in black 
from approaching it. Unaccustomed to the 
grandeur of the Catholic service, I could not 
but admire the magnificent dresses of the Pope 



CHRISTMAS DAY. 197 

and the cardinals, and the grand and impressive 
music and chaunting. At twelve o'clock, when 
the service was concluded, a line was formed 
down the grand aisle, through which the Pope 
and the cardinals retired to the sacristy, to lay 
aside their splendid, but weighty dresses. His 
Holiness was carried in a superb throne, sup- 
ported on the shoulders of his attendants, whilst 
above him was held a splendid canopy, and on 
each side large and beautiful fans of feathers 
and gold. The Pope's Swiss guards, who always 
attend his Holiness when he quits his palace, 
are, if possible, a caricature of our beef-eaters. 
They are forty in number, all Swiss, and many 
of them do not even speak Italian. On grand 
fete days they wear steel helmets and breast- 
plates instead of the ancient cap and slashed 
doublet, which, with black, red, and yellow- 
striped breeches and stockings, form their usual 
dress, and in their hands they always carry a 
long halbert or pike. 

1st January, 1829. The only festivities either 
to be seen or heard which announce the new 
year in Rome, consist in the discharge of a few 
cannon early in the morning from the Fort St. 



198 ROME. 

Angelo, (formerly the mausoleum of Hadrian, 
but now the citadel of Rome and state-prison,) 
and the celebration of grand mass at St. John 
Lateran. 

10th. Sir Humphry this afternoon received a 
parcel from England, which he has for some days 
been expecting with the greatest impatience. 
It was the " Quarterly Review," containing Sir 
Walter Scott's critique on " Salmonia," which 
Sir Humphry begged me to read to him directly, 
and he seemed highly pleased with the manner 
in which Sir Walter speaks of his work. 

1st February. A short time ago a considerable 
part of the city was illuminated in honour of 
eight newly-elected cardinals, whose palaces, as 
well as those of the Roman nobili, were adorned 
with large wax torches, placed two or more in 
each window, whilst the houses of the citizens 
were lighted with small transparent paper lan- 
terns, on which the papal arms were painted. 

The daily drive on the Corso is now often en- 
livened by many gay equipages and servants in 
splendid liveries, the gayest of which are those 
of the Russian Archduchess Helena, and the 
King of Bavaria. I have been twice to the 



ACCIDENTAL FIRE. 199 

theatre ; there are several, and they all opened 
on the 7th of January. The two principal ones, 
Argentina and Valle, are small, and by no means 
striking. 

8th. To-day we were near being burnt out of 
our lodging. On awaking in the morning, I 
found my room and the drawing-room filled with 
smoke, and perceived a strong smell of burning 
wood. The servant said that all the windows 
had been opened for upwards of an hour, and 
yet he could not get rid of the smoke. We 
could, however, discover nothing, till the lodgers 
from below sent up to say that fire was falling 
through their ceiling, and upon going into their 
room I found the ceiling on fire, and that a large 
hole was already burnt through the beams which 
lay immediately under Sir Humphry's fire-place. 
I instantly sent for the fire-men, who did their 
business very expertly, taking up the floor of 
Sir Humphry's drawing-room, which they found 
burning for a considerable space round the 
hearth, upon which so large a fire had been 
kept up the day before, that the heat had pene- 
trated through the stone, and thus set fire to the 
beams. In an hour it was quite extinguished, 



200 ROME. 

and all danger over. To avoid the bustle occa- 
sioned by the reparation required, Sir Humphry 
determined to visit the Lago di Solfatara, some- 
times called the lake of the swimming islets, 
and he begged me to accompany him : we there- 
fore set out immediately, and left Rome by the 
Porta St. Lorenzo, and following the ancient 
Via Tibertina, we crossed, about four miles from 
Rome, the Aniene, or, as it is more generally 
called, the Teverone, a small river, which forms 
the celebrated cascades at Tivoli. On many parts 
of the road the remains of the ancient Roman 
pavement are very distinct, formed of large round 
or octangular flat stones. About thirteen miles 
from Rome we reached the little bridge across 
the stream which runs from the lake of Solfatara. 
Leaving the carriage here, Sir Humphry mounted 
his pony, and, turning off to the left across the 
fields, we soon reached the Lago. It is a small 
bason of water, of an oval form, and measures 
in its greatest diameter not more than two hun- 
dred yards, but its depth is said to be about two 
hundred feet. The colour of the water is bluish 
white, and from the quantity of lime which it 
holds in solution is by no means clear. The 



THE LAGO DI SOLFATARA. 201 

surface appears to be in a state of considerable 
ebullition, which is caused by the quantity of air 
that escapes through it, and on flinging in a 
stone the water bubbles up violently at the spot 
where it falls. The temperature, however, is 
far below that of boiling water, for on trying it 
to the depth of six feet in different places, we 
found it vary between 85° and 87° Fahrenheit. 
It continually emits a strong smell of sulphu- 
rated hydrogen, which is perceptible upon the 
high road sometime before one arrives at the 
Lago. The floating islands, which have contri- 
buted to render this lake celebrated, are no 
fable, and are easily explained. Around it and 
upon it are numerous species of confervce, and 
many small water plants, which, becoming en- 
crusted with the carbonate of lime deposited by 
the water, form with leaves and grasses compact 
little masses, which, supported by air bubbles 
that have lodged beneath, or from their own 
lightness, do not sink, and becoming detached 
by accident from the shore, swim about and 
become larger by the junction of these little 
masses with each other. These little islands 
are said to have been seen of a diameter of some 



202 ROME. 

feet, but the largest which we saw did not ex- 
ceed two or three inches. A canal has been cut 
from the lake to the Teverone, which carries off 
the superfluous water that formerly inundated 
the surrounding plain. Near the large lake are 
two others of smaller size, the waters of which 
are, however, exactly the same. Sticks, leaves, 
or insects, or any thing which falls into these 
waters, become thickly encrusted with a strong 
and hard covering of marble or travertine. It 
is probable that these three lakes were formerly 
only one, and may have covered a considerable 
part of the plain around, which is chiefly formed 
of travertine that has been deposited by water. 
Of this stone also the greater part of the edifices 
in Rome, ancient as well as modern, are built. 
Close to the lake are still to be seen the ruins 
of some ancient Roman baths, and it is said that 
Augustus frequently made use of the waters of 
the Solfatara. 

Upon our return to Rome I heard at the 
trattoria or restaurateur's, where I generally 
dine, an indistinct rumour of the death of the 
Pope, which the Italians express by saying, U 
Santo Padre e andato. 



DEATH OF THE POPE. 203 

10/7*. This morning the death of the Holy 
Father was publicly announced by the tolling 
of the bells, the closing of the theatres and all 
public offices. His decease appears to cause 
little sensation among the Romans, by whom 
he seems to have been exceedingly disliked; 
and happening at this moment just before the 
commencement of the carnival, all the festivities 
and gaieties of which are thus put an end to, it 
does not serve to render his memory more 
popular. 

llth — 14th. Four cardinals have been sitting 
in counsel for the last two or three days, deli- 
berating whether or not any public festivities 
shall be allowed, and have now determined that 
no public amusement shall take place during 
the time that the papal throne shall remain 
vacant. The Romans at this news are quite in 
despair ; and no wonder, for I am told that the 
sum daily spent in this city during the last week 
of the carnival exceeds 80,000 Roman crowns. 
Numberless little pasquinades and jeux d'esprit 
on the late Pope circulate among the people, 
the freedom of many of which not a little sur- 
prises me. The two following are among many 



204 ROME. 

others which I saw handed about in writing, 
though I question if any appeared in print. 

Todini was the Pope's barber-surgeon, to 
whose ignorance and bad treatment his Holi- 
ness' death is attributed. 

V'e chi a Todini oppone 

La morte di Leone ; 
Roma perb sostiene 

Ch 'egli a operato bene. 

And again — 

Alle dieci di Febraro, 

E successo un caso raro, 
A un Leon creduto forte 

Diede un asino la morte. 

16th. To-day I made an excursion to Tivoli, 

with Hofrath F of Darmstadt, whom I had 

met a day or two before by mere chance, in 
the street, and who kindly greeted me as an old 
friend. We followed the same road which I had 
passed over with Sir Humphry when we visited 
the Solfatara ; and about two miles beyond the 
little bridge over the canal, we again crossed the 
Teverone, by the Ponte Lucano, near which is 
the sepulchre of the Plautian family, built of 
travertine, in the shape of a round tower, and on 



TIVOLI. 205 

the front of it are still the remains of some 
columns and latin inscriptions. Three or four 
miles beyond this monument lies Tivoli, where we 
arrived about ten o'clock in the morning, having 
quitted Rome at an early hour, and we occupied 
the whole morning in viewing the ruins and 
cascades. Our first visit was to the Temple of 
Vesta, generally called the Temple of the Sybil, 
a beautiful and elegant ruin, situated immedi- 
ately above the Falls of the Aniene. It is of a 
circular form, and appears to have been sur- 
rounded by eighteen columns, ten of which are 
still remaining. These columns are of traver- 
tine, and of the Corinthian order. Close to this 
temple stands another small one, which is said to 
have been dedicated to the Tiburtine Sybil, of a 
square form, with four Ionic columns in front. 
Descending near this temple, a very good path 
led us down to the Grotto of Neptune, into 
which the waters of the Aniene precipitate 
themselves with impetuosity, forming on two 
sides beautiful cascades, which fall into the same 
pool, and run from it through a very narrow and 
highly picturesque valley, round the hill upon 
which Tivoli is situated. Leaving the grotto 



206 TIVOLI. 

and town, we walked along* the side of the 
mountains which look towards the campagna and 
Rome ; and during- our walk, our guide showed 
us the remains and situations of some of the 
most celebrated villas ; the country-house of the 
poet Catullus, and that of Horace and Quintillius 
Varo. Before we ascended to the villa of Mae- 
cenas, we passed by the Cascatelle, beautiful and 
highly picturesque falls, which seem to rise out 
of the town of Tivoli, and leap down the hill 
into the valley in many a varied bound. The 
villa of Maecenas is now used as an iron ma- 
nufactory ; many of the rooms and corridors are 
still distinct, and the roof is still perfect. The 
view from hence towards Rome is magnificent, 
embracing the whole campagna, with the differ- 
ent towns and villages in it, and is bounded by 
the cupola of St. Peter's. The Villa d' Este is 
of modern architecture, and must formerly have 
been very splendid; but it is now falling fast 
into decay, and its fine gardens are no longer 
attended to; the fountains in them are dry, and 
the numberless statues that adorn them have 
become brown and dirty. 

After dinino- at Tivoli we returned to Rome, 



VILLA ADRIANA. 207 

but stopped for two hours at the Villa Adriana, 
to view the astonishing ruins of this wonderful 
spot, where the Emperor Hadrian attempted to 
unite all the grand and beautiful objects which 
he had beheld in Greece and Egypt. He here 
built a Lycseum, an Academy, a Pritaneum, 
like those he had seen at Athens; he formed 
the Vale of Tempe, in imitation of the cele- 
brated Thessalian Valley ; and not content with 
earthly subjects, he imagined Tartarus and the 
Elysian Fields, as described in the ancient my- 
thology. The ruins of this stupendous villa 
cover a surface of seven miles in circumference, 
in which are found the remains of circuses, 
temples, theatres, libraries, baths, palaces, &c. 
&c, which still present an astonishing proof of 
the almost inconceivable grandeur and magnifi- 
cence of the ancient lords of the Roman Empire. 
The mind that planned and executed this mighty 
work, and conceived the idea of bringing toge- 
ther into one spot of ground the noblest edi- 
fices scattered over the surface of the gigantic 
empire which he governed, could have been of 
no common mould, nor can any one dwell upon 
it as such, whilst wandering amid these now 



208 HOME. 

mouldering ruins. Leaving the villa, we pro- 
ceeded to the Solfatara, Hofrath F not 

having yet seen it, and from thence returned to 
Rome, where I arrived just in time to read to 
Sir Humphry, after having spent a day of no 
common pleasure, which had not been a little 
heightened by the kind and friendly interest 
shown me by the Hofrath. 

20th — 28th. These days have been to me 
days of extreme anxiety, and often of fearful 
anticipation. On the 20th Sir Humphry was 
attacked with a renewed stroke of palsy, which 
had nearly proved fatal to him. In the morning 
he had, after breakfast, been dictating to me his 
dialogues, which he had nearly finished, and he 
appeared even to be better, and more gay than 
I had seen him for some time. I left him at 
eleven o'clock, and went to my adjoining room 
to continue the fair copy, but had scarcely 
seated myself, when I heard him hastily call 
me, and upon entering the room I found him 
fallen upon the sofa, and deprived apparently of 
the use of his limbs. He evidently thought 
himself dying, but his voice was quite audible, 
and he told me, that on attempting to rise from 



ILLNESS OF SIR, H. DAVY. 209 

the sofa, he felt that he had no power over 
his limbs, more especially those of his right 
side, and that he felt sick at his stomach. 
With the assistance of the servants I got him 
into bed as quickly as possible, and I sent 
immediately for Dr. Jenks, who came di- 
rectly, bringing with him Dr. Morichini. They 
each did all that was possible to relieve Sir 
Humphry's apprehensions, and assured me 
the danger was not so immediate as he ima- 
gined. After they left, I wrote both to Doctor 
and Lady Davy, and then read to Sir Hum- 
phry during the remainder of the day, which 
seemed to quiet and calm him. He slept very 
little in the night, and continued much in the 
same state through the next day, though he 
was able during it to dictate some codicils to 
his will, and to finish the little that remained 
of the Dialogues. On the 22nd he was rather 
better, although he had much fever, and was 
able, with the help of my guiding his hand, to 
sign two or three papers of importance. On the 
23rd, however, he became worse, and he dic- 
tated a letter to his brother, Dr. Davy, to say 
that he was dying; but the physicians who 



210 ROME. 

visited him daily three times, said he was not 
materially worse. He has often taken large 
doses of laudanum and acetate of morphine, (of 
the latter in one day upwards of twenty grains, ) 
even more than his physicians approved, and 
on the 24th he was much worse, having passed 
a sleepless and very restless night. He was 
extremely weak, and his voice had sunk to 
a whisper scarcely audible ; he said he felt his 
forces going, and that he should not outlive the 
day ; yet his mental faculties maintained their 
power and activity, and seemed to be always 
occupied with the same subject, his Dialogues, 
the title of which, " Philosophical Dialogues," 
he said he wished to have changed for " The 
Last Days of a Philosopher ; or, Consolations in 
Travel." I could not persuade him to take 
anything during the morning, and even the 
little which he had spoken to me seemed to 
have exhausted him. The idea that his dissolu- 
tion was close at hand, was fixed in his mind, 
and saying that he had but a few hours longer 
to live, he begged to be left quiet and alone, 
and pressing my hand said, " God bless you, 
I shall never see you again." After this he lay 



ILLNESS OF SIR H. DAVY. 211 

in a torpor for many hours, but in the afternoon 
he revived a little, and Dr. Morichini at length 
succeeded in persuading him to take a little 
broth and a glass of champagne. The reading 
to him seems to aiford him much pleasure, and 
I have often read to him till midnight ; George 
always sits up with him, and, when anything 
occurs, immediately calls me. Since the 24th 
he has gradually got better, and on the 25th 
he recovered his voice, and was not quite so de- 
sponding as before, and the three following days 
found him still better, but now and then deli- 
rious, from the quantity of acetate of morphine 
which he has taken and still takes. 

29th — 1st April Sir Humphry has been gra- 
dually recovering, and has now considerably 
regained the power over his limbs, and is often 
able to be upon the sofa the greater part of the 
day. It seems impossible for him to exist 
without being read to, and on one day I read 
Shakspeare to him for nine hours. On the 15th 
of March Dr. Davy arrived from Malta, and 
Lady Davy from London I on the 30th, she 
having travelled day and night. Their arrival 
relieved me from much anxiety. When Sir 
p2 



212 ROME. 

Humphry is able to bear travelling we shall 
leave Rome, and proceed to Geneva by way of 
Florence and Genoa, and at the latter city Dr. 
Davy will probably quit us to return to Malta. 
Sir Humphry has latterly found himself so much 
better, that he often takes a drive for an hour 
or two. 

20th. This being Easter Monday, Sir Hum- 
phry determined to drive out and see the grand 
illumination of St. Peter's, which takes place 
annually on this evening. It was indeed one 
of the grandest sights imaginable, and we were 
remarkably fortunate in seeing it this year, when 
it was said to be more magnificent than usual, in 
honour of the newly elected pope. Between 
six and seven o'clock in the evening, thousands 
and thousands crowd over the Ponte St. Angelo 
to gain a place in the grand Piazza of St. Peter's. 
Only the carriages belonging to the cardinals 
and foreign ambassadors are allowed to pass 
over that bridge on this evening, all others 
being obliged to make a considerable detour. 
At seven o'clock the Piazza is crowded with all 
sorts of carriages, and upwards of an hundred 
thousand people. This front of the church, the 



ILLUMINATION OF ST. PETER'S. 213 

cupola, and two smaller domes, are seen illumi- 
nated with innumerable small paper lanterns, 
fixed at regular distances. This lasts till nearly 
eight, and in the meanwhile the mass of the 
people in the Piazza are loud in their expression 
of joy and expectation, but as the hour of eight 
approaches all becomes still and hushed, and 
only a half-breathed solitary adess\ adesso, is 
now and then heard. With the first stroke of 
the clock, the great bell of St. Peter's sounds 
one. All eyes turn instantly to the cross on the 
top of the cupola, from out of which a magni- 
ficent column of flame is seen suddenly to burst. 
A second stroke upon the great bell, and the fire 
is seen descending with the rapidity of lightning 
over the cupola and the other parts of the 
church. The bell strikes for a third and last 
time, and the two magnificent semicircular colo- 
nades which surround the Piazza, are beheld in 
a blaze of illumination. The whole is the work 
of three or four seconds, and so great is the 
light produced, that of the former illumination 
not a trace is visible. This lasted for about 
half an hour, when the lights faded away, and 
the crowd began to disperse. 



214 DEPARTURE FROM ROME. 

21st. This day was celebrated by a magni- 
ficent display of fireworks, which the Italians 
call la Girandola, on the Mausoleum of Ha- 
drian. They are announced by the explosion 
of a tremendous maroon, which seems to shake 
Rome to her centre; this is followed by the 
eruption of Vesuvius, formed by thousands of 
rockets, which rise at the same moment, and 
give to a person who has not witnessed an 
eruption, a terrific idea of that phenomenon. 
After this follow all kinds of fireworks of the 
most brilliant description, the whole fort is seen 
illuminated, and on the top appears the name of 
the Pope in gigantic flaming letters ; suns and 
stars are seen bursting from the dense clouds of 
smoke which hang heavy in the air, and the 
scene closes by another eruption of Vesuvius, 
which throws a red and fiery glare upon the 
neighbouring cupola of St. Peter's. 

30th. We this morning quitted Rome by the 
same gate through which we entered, and dined 
at Baccano, where we found the inn thronged 
with strangers, chiefly English, all flocking to 
the north. A few miles beyond Monte Rosa we 
turned out of our former road, and drove on to 



MONTEFIASCOVE. 215 

Ronciglione, a small village of dark black houses, 
in the midst of which rises a newly white- washed 
church and cupola, like a shining light in the 
village of darkness. 

1st May. Leaving Ronciglione, we passed by 
the Lago di Vigo, a small lake, which lay be- 
neath us as we wound up a very steep hill, from 
the top of which we enjoyed a magnificent view. 
In the plain beneath us lay Horace's Soracte; and 
beyond this mountain, and stretching towards 
the north as far as the eye could reach, the chain 
of the Appenines, whose lower regions were 
clad in the fresh green of spring, while the 
higher ridges were mostly covered with snow, 
above which rose the more distant summits of 
the Velino and many other snowy peaks, now 
hidden by light fleeting clouds, and then again 
glittering in a morning sun. At the bottom of 
the hill we passed through Viterbo, and after a 
drive of some hours over a hilly country, we 
came to Montefiascove, a small place, celebrated 
for its wine, which, if the following anecdote be 
true, once cost a reverend prelate his life. He 
was a great friend of good wines, and when on 
a journey used always to send a courier on be- 



216 ST. LORENZO. 

fore to taste the wines of the different places 
through which he was to pass, and when it was 
good he was ordered to write to his master est 
bonum, and when remarkably good, est, est. On 
tasting the wine at Montefiascove, the courier 
wrote est, est, est bonum, and his judgment 
seemed to have been right; for when his right 
reverend master arrived, he drank such a quan- 
tity of it that it occasioned his death. From the 
hill on which the town stands is a fine view of 
the lake of Bolsena, which appears to be the 
crater of an immense volcano of a former world. 
In the middle of the water rise two islands of 
solid rock, seemingly basalt, which is found in 
considerable quantity on the banks, and ap- 
pears in some very remarkable formations near 
Bolsena, and the whole country around is volca- 
nic tufa. Bolsena is the ancient capital of the 
Etruscans; it lies rather above the road, and 
we did not pass through it, but drove on to St. 
Lorenzo, a miserable collection of a few houses, 
where we stopped for the night at a very bad 
inn. 

2nd. The first town after leaving St. Lorenzo 
was Aquapendente, a small and very ancient 






TUSCANY. 217 

place, romantically situated in a rocky ravine. 
Between this town and Radicofani we left the 
Papal territories, and entered Tuscany. Radi- 
cofani is a small and very old town, on the brow 
of a steep hill, which is surmounted by an an- 
cient ruined castle. The change in the Italian 
pronunciation almost instantly strikes the ear; 
for here a guttural sound is always predominant. 
The dress of the peasants also seems to have 
changed with the change of country ; instead of 
the white and stiffly-starched handkerchiefs of 
the Roman females, laid in a square upon the 
head, and falling down the back, we now meet 
women with pretty black turbans, which give 
them a much more picturesque appearance ; 
many of them also wear men's hats, only adding 
one or more black feathers as ornament. In 
this neighbourhood grows the famous wine of 
Monte-pelluciano, called by Redi, II re dei vini. 
It was not, however, at all to my taste, for it 
seemed to me a strong, rough, red wine. The 
green-jacketed postilions of the Pope have dis- 
appeared, and in their place we met with red 
jackets, turned up with black. Having dined at 
Radicofani, we drove on through a hilly and 



218 SIENNA. 

barren country to La Scala, a lone house, where 
the vetturini stop for the night. 

3rd. We quitted La Scala early, and passing 
through the same hilly and uninteresting coun- 
try, arrived and dined at Buonconvento, a small 
and rather more modern town than any we 
have yet seen. After dinner we went on to 
Sienna, and the country became rather more in- 
teresting, being now and then diversified with 
country houses and villas. The roads are excel- 
lent, and very well kept. Sienna lies very high, 
and is seen from a considerable distance, espe- 
cially two of its towers ; one of them very lofty 
and slender, and the other streaked alternately 
with black and white lines, just like a Prussian 
boundary- post. We entered the town by a 
spacious old brick gateway, and driving through 
a long and wide street, paved with broad flag- 
stones, arrived at the Aquila Nera, a very good 
inn. With the exception of the chief street, the 
others seem narrow and dark. Sienna is re- 
markable for the pure Tuscan which the inha- 
bitants speak, as a proof of which they relate the 
following anecdote : — A preacher of some cele- 
brity being on the road to Sienna, to edify its 



THE CATHEDRAL. 219 

inhabitants with an oration, met a peasant girl 
on the road, and asked her how far distant he 
was from the town ? She replied to him — 

" Sbarcate il fiume, salite il monte, 
Avrete Sienna in fronte." 

The orator is said to have been so astonished at 
hearing these words from a peasant, that he in- 
stantly gave up his intention of preaching to 
such connoisseurs of Italian, and returned from 
whence he came. Not only for its pure language 
is Sienna famous, but also for its beautiful 
women ; and this very justly, for no where have 
I seen so many well-made and handsome figures 
as in the streets of this town. The cathedral is 
one of the strangest buildings I ever saw; it is 
entirely built of alternate layers of black and 
white marble, and the Prussian boundary-post 
which we saw from a distance is its chief tower. 
The portico is a fine, but very incongruous piece 
of Gothic architecture ; pillars of all sorts and 
sizes are intermingled with statues of saints, 
basriefs, horses' heads, and the gaping mouths of 
dragons, some gilt, some bronze, and others in 
white marble. The black marble in the interior 



220 SIENNA. 

seemed to overpower the white, and threw a 
strange and unearthly gloom over the broad 
aisles as I saw them in the dusk of evening, hung 
with flags, and lighted with a few nickering tapers, 
which hardly served to discover here and there 
some solitary devotee, praying at the altar of 
his patron saint. 

In the evening, after reading to Sir Hum- 
phry, I went for an hour to the theatre, where 
I found a juggler amusing a numerous and de- 
lighted assembly with his tricks. 

4th. This was a very rainy day, and Sir Hum- 
phry determined to remain at Sienna, to rest 
himself from the fatigue of the journey, which he 
has, however, borne much better than could have 
been expected. In the morning I went again 
to the cathedral, to see the paintings of Raphael. 
They are painted on the walls of the sacristy, 
and represent scenes from the life of Clement II. 
It is said they were only designed by Raphael 
when he was very young, and afterwards coloured 
by another master; good judges, however, can 
alone decide upon this point. In the same room 
are some beautifully illuminated old missals, and 
a fine marble monument by Ricchi, to the me- 



THE CATHEDRAL. 221 

mory of the celebrated anatomist Mascagni, who 
was a native of Sienna. It represents a weep- 
ing female in a sitting posture, holding a 
scroll in her hand, on which is an inscription in 
letters of gold, and around her lie different ana- 
tomical instruments and books. In the middle 
of the room, on a lofty pedestal, is an antique 
group in marble, representing the three Graces. 
They were found in repairing the foundations of 
the church, and, though much mutilated, are 
beautifully executed, and may probably have 
given Canova the idea of his Graces, as the sa- 
cristan told me he had repeatedly visited them, 
and spent much time in the study of them. The 
cathedral also contains many fine pictures of 
very ancient date, one as early as the year 1280. 
The pulpit of African marble is very remarkable 
for the beauty of its sculpture, and the inlaid 
and carved pavement before the altar is also 
very curious, but its chief boast is the possession 
of one of the arms of John the Baptist ; it how- 
ever has lost its little finger, which a bishop 
of Florence is said to have bitten off through 
envy, while devoutly kissing the relic. St. 
John's head is said to be at Genoa, and I sup- 



222 FLORENCE. 

pose his other limbs are to be found in some part 
of Italy. 

5th. It rained heavily this morning, but 
cleared up before we left Sienna. The country 
at first is rather barren and hilly, but improves 
the nearer we approach to Florence. Taver- 
nelle, where we stopped to dine and bait the 
horses, is a small and insignificant village; the 
country beyond it becomes very pretty; the 
road is bordered with neat villages and villas, 
from the gardens of which immense clusters of 
roses hang over the walls, and the distant hills 
are covered with fine wood, and with the beau- 
tiful fan pine. We saw Florence in the valley 
of the Arno long before we reached it ; in itself 
smaller than I expected it, but surrounded on all 
sides by innumerable villas and hamlets, peeping 
through the fine woods, or standing in the midst 
of beautifully cultivated fields. We entered the 
city by the Porta Romana, a plain old brick 
gateway, and drove to the Hotel de 1' Europe, 
where we were splendidly and comfortably 
lodged. 

6th — 9th. We remained these days at Flo- 
rence, that Sir Humphry might a little recruit 



ANATOMICAL CABINET. 223 

his strength ; and during this time, at intervals 
when he did not want me to read to him, I 
saw as much as I could of the curiosities of this 
magnificent capital. The celebrated gallery, 
which is perhaps its greatest attraction, [ was 
only able just to look at, having but two hours 
to devote to it. The anatomical cabinet of pre- 
parations in wax is undoubtedly the finest thing 
of its kind existing, and shows what effects pa- 
tience and perseverance can produce, being 
chiefly the work of one person. Many rooms 
are filled with glass cases, containing the most 
beautiful and exact representations of the struc- 
ture of the human body in all its parts, moulded 
in wax. The finest and most intricate parts of 
the human frame are delineated and traced with 
a distinctness and exactitude hardly to be con- 
ceived, and the slightest ramifications of the 
nerves and vessels have been followed with a 
clearness and accuracy rarely seen in the most 
exact preparations of the best cabinets of ana- 
tomy. The collection is not confined only to 
the anatomy of the human body, but contains 
also numerous specimens of comparative anatomy, 
amongst which is a most beautiful one of a fish, 



224 FLORENCE. 

with all its internal organs. In the museum 
annexed to the anatomical cabinet are also three 
representations of the plague at Florence, de- 
scribing this terrific scourge with a horrible and 
disgusting accuracy. This, and all other col- 
lections, are open on certain days, and at fixed 
hours, to the public, and any one is allowed to 
enter, and without paying. 

The cathedral is a fine building, in the same 
style of architecture as that at Sienna, and, like 
it, is built of black and white marble. The cele- 
brated Campanella, or belfry, is a lofty square 
tower, detached from the church, and built in a 
fine and light style; when I was there it was 
closed, and I had not time to repeat my visit, so 
that I did not see the interior. One evening I 
went to the Pergola, a very fine and large 
theatre : it is extremely simple and elegant, the 
ground-colour being shining white, relieved by 
light gilt ornaments, and the opera and ballet 
were in a style of corresponding elegance. I 
went once to see the house of Dante, now called 
the Palazzo Dante, and the residence of the 
French Ambassador. Near it is also the dwell- 
ing place of the two Guicciardini, 



lucca. 225 

9th. We quitted Florence this morning for 
Genoa, and drove on to Pistoja in two hours 
and a half. The road runs through a long con- 
tinued row of villages and villas, linked toge- 
ther by the graceful festoons of the green vine. 
The plain is covered with Italian vineyards, in 
which the vines are trained from tree to tree, 
very different from those of Germany. The 
villages are full of roses; and the nearer hills 
are spotted with white houses, rising among the 
green trees, and beyond them appears a chain of 
loftier snow-tipped mountains. The inhabitants 
of the villages were all sitting in the sun before 
their doors, chiefly employed in plaiting straw 
for the Leghorn hats. The drive from Pistoja 
to Lucca is most beautiful ; the land is in high 
cultivation, and appears to be very rich. The 
mountains became grander, more rugged and 
bolder, as we approached the Lucchese territory, 
which we entered about eight miles from Lucca. 
The ramparts surrounding the town are all 
planted with lofty trees, which perfectly conceal 
the houses beyond them, so that, with the ex- 
ception of one or two towers, no part of the 
town is visible from without the walls. The 
Q 



226 MASSA. 

streets are old, narrow, and dirty, and the ca- 
thedral is an awkward building, the front of 
which is formed of rows of small arches, one 
above another, surmounted by a gigantic un- 
couth white angel, in whose head was stuck a 
great dry bush. 

10th. We quitted Lucca at seven in the 
morning, and from the top of the hill beyond 
it, I discovered the straight blue line of the Me- 
diterranean. Descending the hill, and driving 
about ten miles through groves of olives and 
rows of poplars, from which the vines hung 
down in long single festoons, we past the 
boundary of the Lucchese territory, and entered 
the small dukedom of Massa- Carrara, and shortly 
after into the town of Massa, a neat and airy 
though old town. White marble is generally 
used here for the stairs, and for the facings of 
the doors and windows. Whilst dinner was 
preparing, I took a walk up to the old castle 
above the town, now emphatically called the 
fortress. Its only garrison, however, seemed to 
consist of four or five soldiers, who were pro- 
vided with one old rusty cannon. The view 
from the ruined battlements was highly beau- 



CARRARA. 2*27 

tiful: in front lay the wide sea, glancing in 
the beams of the sun, so bright that the eye 
could not bear to look upon it; to the left, 
in the distance, appeared the island of Gor- 
gona, rising like a dark blue rock out of the 
glittering waves ; to the right, two smaller 
islands were seen, beyond which appeared 
promontory upon promontory, conveying their 
woods of olives far out into the sea. Below 
the castle a vast plain covered with vineyards 
and groves of olives was seen, stretching down 
to the edge of the water, intersected by a sil- 
very river winding among the trees, whilst im- 
mediately under the hill, and half hidden by it, 
lay Massa, like the plan of a town spread open 
before me. Beyond it were seen the wooded 
hills leading to Carrara, and behind the castle 
rose rocky and rugged mountains, here and 
there spotted with a field or two of remaining 
snow, and, like the Alps, hiding their lofty heads 
in dark grey clouds. 

Quitting Massa, we drove over a noble bridge 

of one lofty arch built entirely of white marble, 

and after winding across a long hill, we passed 

through Carrara, near which, in one of the lateral 

o2 



228 spezia. 

vallies, are the celebrated marble quarries. A 
little beyond this village we entered the Pied- 
montese territory and the dominions of the 
King of Sardinia, and soon arrived at Sarzana, 
a small ill-looking town. It being Sunday, the 
road and town were covered with peasants in 
their holiday suits : the dress of the women is 
one of the oddest I have yet seen ; they wear 
no stockings, and their clothes seem huddled on 
all in a bundle ; their hair is drawn away from 
their foreheads, and tied up behind in a bag of 
silk, of different colours, some red, some blue, 
some black, and always with three or four 
tassels hanging down from the end, whilst on 
the top of this bag is stuck the funniest little 
straw hat possible, looking much like a soup 
plate turned topsy-turvy, and made of frizzled 
straw, ornamented with coloured ribbons. The 
women of a higher rank wear white veils over 
their heads, and no bags. 

11 th. Leaving Sarzana, we crossed the river 
Magara in a ferry-boat, and after a pleasant 
drive arrived at Spezia, a small narrow-streeted 
town, beautifully situated at the head of the 
gulf of Spezia, and surrounded on the side 



BORGHETTO. 229 

near the sea by spacious walks and groves of 
acacias, which were covered with their long white 
blossoms, and exhaled a most delightful per- 
fume. In the middle of the gulf, not far from 
the town, we were informed that a spring of 
fresh water rises through the sea, forming a 
pool of fresh water of thirty to forty yards in 
circumference in the middle of the salt-water. 
I had however no time to visit this phenomenon, 
for Sir Humphry wished to be read to for an 
hour or two, and we shortly after quitted Spezia 
and with it the sea, and drove on to Borghetto, 
a little miserable village, the road to which was 
not yet finished, and very bad, though running 
through a beautiful valley, much resembling 
some of those of Austria, with its clear stream 
and finely wooded mountains. 

12th. We quitted Borghetto early, and wind- 
ing over a very long and high mountain for 
four hours, we again saw the sea, two or three 
thousand feet below us, spotted by many a white 
flitting sail. In the distance was Gorgone, and 
still further, scarcely visible to the eye, the hazy 
blue line of Corsica, which was however soon 
lost to us. A great part of the mountain was 



230 RAPAL. 

composed of serpentine, with which also the roads 
were mended. From the top we looked down 
upon other mountains, covered with villages, but 
very barren, a few olive groves here and there 
being the only mark of vegetation. At the 
bottom of the hill we passed through Sestri, a 
pretty little town close upon the sea, and from 
thence over a beautiful road on the sea shore to 
Chiavari, a larger town, rather more distant from 
the sea, and partly hidden by trees, above which 
rose its white steeples and some of its houses. 
The gulf of Sestri is far more beautiful and 
diversified even than that of Spezia. 

13$. We quitted Chiaviri this morning for 
Genoa. The road is beautiful and romantic, 
running for miles along the side of a mountain, 
and hanging perpendicularly over the sea, which 
lies many hundred feet below it. In many parts 
it appears very dangerous, and were the car- 
riage to upset, the traveller would be instantly 
precipitated into the waves below. Between 
Chiavari and Rapal there are two tunnels cut 
through the solid rock. This latter place is 
a very pretty village or small town, close upon 
the sea, and the whole country round it seems 



GENOA* 231 

very populous ; country-houses, villas, and farms, 
appearing on all sides among the vineyards and 
olive woods. At the top of the last hill, after 
leaving Rapal, we came to another tunnel, which 
was carried through the summit for one hundred 
yards or more, and presented us with one of 
the most striking views possible. Looking 
through the mountain we first saw the blue and 
tranquil sea, with a few passing sails, then pre- 
sently rose to view, as it were out of the ocean, 
the white and glittering towers of Genova la 
superba, and its field of masts, scarcely visible to 
the eye. Emerging from the tunnel the view 
became more extensive, for we could trace the 
road to Genoa, about ten miles off, running 
along the mountains somewhat above the sea, 
and lined with villages and villas lying upon the 
sides of the hills, which, however, were not so 
finely wooded as those we had just passed. This 
city of palaces much disappointed me, and does 
not at all answer to its splendid appearance from 
a distance; it seems like two different towns 
brought together from the opposite parts of the 
world, and built for very different inhabitants. 
The upper part of the city consists of mag- 



23*2 GENOA. 

nificent streets, or rather rows of marble pa- 
laces, while the streets of the lower town form 
only an assemblage of dirty and narrow lanes. 
Our hotel, La Villa, looks out upon the harbour, 
which is chiefly filled with small craft. In the 
middle of the gulf, however, were three frigates 
in full sail, which were bearing the King of 
Sardinia and his suite to Naples. 

14th — 17th. Sir Humphry has determined to 
remain here two or three days to recover from 
the fatigues of the journey hither. Dr. Davy, 
who was to have left us here and return to 
Malta, has determined upon accompanying his 
brother to Geneva. I generally read to Sir 
Humphry the greater part of the day, but I 
went on the 15th for a couple of hours upon 
one of the hills behind the town, and took a 
sketch of it as it lay stretched out beneath me. 
The hills are indeed rather barren, and this, 
combined with the scarcity of fish, speak for the 
truth of at least a part of the following proverb, 

Mare senza pesce, 
Montagne senza legno, 
Donna senza pudore, 

which is often applied to Genoa. I went one 



GENOA. 233 

evening to the theatre, after Sir Humphry had 
retired to bed, and was much amused by a mag- 
nificent ballet, Carlo di Borgogna, which, how- 
ever, ended in a very tragical manner, the 
heroine being struck dead by lightning amongst 
rocks and snow, and precipitated into a roaring 
torrent. The theatre is quite new, and is splen- 
didly decorated. 

ISth. We quitted Genoa this morning, and 
drove through the whole town round by the 
harbour and lighthouse, from which spot the 
city is seen to the greatest advantage, the 
white and magnificent buildings and churches 
rising one above another above the thick crowd 
of masts, whilst behind the city the hills appear 
almost covered with country villas and gardens, 
which in some measure make up for the want 
of wood. On one or two of these hills are 
fortresses, which were nearly concealed by the 
dark and lowering clouds. We drove for some 
way through a long and very populous suburb 
on the sea-shore, and then turned off into the 
valley; and upon reaching the top of a very 
steep hill, took a last view of the Mediterranean. 
We reached Ronco, a small and dirty village, 



234 TURIN. 

but with a decent inn, in a very heavy shower 
of rain, and having dined there, we after- 
wards continued our journey to Novi, a small 
common-place town, where we remained for the 
night. 

19th. We quitted Novi early, and dined at 
Alexandria, passing over the plains of Marengo, 
now fine and flourishing corn-fields. In spite 
of the thick clouds, we now and then caught a 
glimpse of the white snow on the distant Alps. 
Alexandria is a small, and apparently not a very 
strong fortress. After dinner we drove on to 
Asti, the birth-place of Alfieri, but as much or 
more celebrated for its fine wines. 

20th. We left Asti, and reached Piorino by 
dinner-time; the roads were very bad, and be- 
came still worse between the latter place and 
Turin. Some time before we reached Turin we 
came to the Po, which is here not quite so large 
as the Neckar, but is deep and muddy. Turin 
lies flat, and has not the appearance of a great 
city from a distance. A fine bridge over the 
Po leads into the Piazza del Po, a noble square, 
forming the entrance into the town. The streets 
are all built at right angles, which gives to the 



MONT CENIS. 235 

whole city a neat and regular appearance. We 
remained here during the 21st, which was a 
completely wet day, the rain beginning in the 
morning and continuing without intermission. 

22nd. Quitting Turin, the road for the first 
eight or ten miles was excellent, but afterwards 
was not so good. St. Ambrosio, where we 
dined, is a small and dirty village. Every body 
already speaks French, and the Piedmontese- 
Italian, which we met with at Sarzana, and 
heard spoken till we reached Turin, is now 
quite lost in patois of French and Italian. From 
St. Ambrosio we had a wet drive to Susa, a 
small town, prettily situated at the foot of Monte 
Cenisio or Mont Cenis. Our road lay through 
a valley bounded on each side by snowy Alps, 
mostly hidden in the dark grey clouds, which 
towards evening fell in a heavy shower, and 
then sailed away up the mountain, leaving the 
evening finer than could have been expected, 
and promising a fair day for the ascent of Mont 
Cenis to-morrow. 

23rd. I have now crossed Mont Cenis, one 
of the highest and most celebrated alpine 
passes, and I have been much disappointed; 



236 MONT CENIS. 

though I have seen it not only in the dark and 
veiling gloom of an approaching storm, but 
have also gazed upon its bleak and rugged 
rocks, its frozen lake, and its fields of snow, 
glittering in the redoubled splendour of the 
returning sunbeams after the storm had passed 
away; for I must confess that it cannot bear 
comparison either with the pass of the Lbbel, 
or the Tauern. It has not the brilliant vegeta- 
tion of either of these to relieve the eye during 
the long ascent, nor is the wanderer struck with 
the fine views that meet him on the Austrian 
passes, either during the ascent, on the summit, 
or on the descent. After leaving Susa and the 
lower vallies, all is bleak and dreary, rock or 
snow ; the road is very good, and often defended 
by very stout bars. Ascending higher, we reached 
the Case di ricovero or houses of refuge, small 
square cottages built on the road side at short 
distances from one another, and which afford 
shelter to travellers during the storms that are 
very frequent here, and are generally accompa- 
nied by tremendous winds. During our ascent 
we were visited by a storm of hail and rain, 
which lasted for about an hour. Nearly on the 



MONT CENIS. 337 

summit of the mountain is a hospital, with a few 
other houses, aud two or three inns, and the 
whole bears the name of Les Tavernes. We 
here passed the boundary of Italy, and entered 
into the duchy of Savoy. In front of the little 
village is a small lake, which was still frozen, 
and the people at one of the inns told me that 
in summer its banks are haunted by large, but 
harmless serpents, which are very good to eat. 
About half a league beyond Les Tavernes we 
found ourselves on the summit of the pass, and 
looked down upon Lans-le-bourg, at the bottom 
of a wide but barren valley. A few snowy 
mountains appeared in the distance, but they 
were neither remarkable in form or height. 
The road on the French side is by no means 
so long or so steep as that on the Italian side, 
though it often winds round very unnecessarily. 
We descended to Lans-le-bourg in less than 
two hours, and remained there for the night. 

24th. Quitting Lans-le-bourg we followed the 
valley, which becomes more beautiful as we 
advanced further to St. Michael. The sides 
are frequently covered with fine woods, from 
amongst which many grand and lofty cascades 



238 CHAMBERY, 

come rushing down into the Ose, which foams 
and hurries on in its rocky bed by the road side. 
Near St. Michael is a large and strong fortress, 
which quite commands the road in the valley. 
From hence we drove on through St. Jean, a 
small town, prettily situated and surrounded by 
some fine rocky scenery, to La Chambre, a 
paltry little village, with a miserable inn, where 
however we were obliged to spend the night. 

25th. We quitted La Chambre early, and 
drove on through Aiguebelle, where we quitted 
the valley, and passed on through a more open 
and hilly country to Maltaverne, a very good 
inn, with one or two small houses near it. The 
surrounding country seems very well cultivated, 
and appears to be very productive. 

26th. We left Maltaverne this morning early, 
for Aix-aux-Bains, passing through Mount Me- 
lian, a small town on the Ose, the same river 
which we followed from the foot of Mount 
Cenis, and which we here left a broad and 
navigable stream. Three leagues further we 
passed through Chambery, the capital of Savoy, 
an old town, with dirty and narrow streets, at 
least those through which we drove, but beauti- 



aix. 239 

fully situated in a valley, and surrounded with 
magnificent hills and woods. A very fine road 
up a long and steep hill, brought us in a couple 
of hours to Aix, which is a very neat little 
bathing place, and which appears, from the list 
of last year, to have been much frequented 
during the season. The springs, which are 
warm and cold, contain chiefly sulphur and 
alum. Near the village is the lake of Bourget, 
which is pretty, though not on a grand or 
imposing scale. I took a sketch of it from a 
stone pier which is built out to a short distance 
in the lake, and then returned to read to Sir 
Humphry, who seemed pleased with the sketch, 
and said he should like to have it introduced 
in a future edition of " Salmonia," it being one 
of the lakes which he speaks of in his last 
dialogue. 

27th. Quitting Aix, we passed through a 
finely cultivated, though not very pretty coun- 
try, the nearer hills being rather barren, and the 
distant view obscured by clouds, as it has been 
for the last day or two, to Frangy, a small 
country village, where we passed the evening, 
as Sir Humphry did not wish to go on any 
further. 



240 GENEVA. 

28th. We quitted Frangy this morning, and 
reached Geneva by twelve o'clock, and drove to 
the Couronne. Sir Humphry is in very toler- 
able spirits, and the journey seems to have 
fatigued him so little, that he intends to-mor- 
row morning going out to fish in the lake. 

29th May. I quitted Sir Humphry yes- 
terday evening, after having read to him as 
usual, since we left Rome, till about ten o'clock. 
Our book was Smollet's " Humphry Clinker," 
and little did I think it was the last book he 
would ever listen to. He seemed in tolerable 
spirits, but upon going to bed was seized with 
spasms, which, however, were not violent, and 
soon ceased. I left him when in bed, and 
bidding me " Good night," he said I should see 
him better in the morning. 

Lady Davy and the Doctor also quitted him, 
and George went to bed in his master's room, 
as he always had done since Sir Humphry's 
illness at Rome. At six o'clock this morning, 
Lady Davy's man-servant came to my room, 
and told me that Sir Humphry Davy was no 
more. I replied that it was impossible, and 
that he probably only lay in a torpor; but I 



sir h. davy's last illness. 241 

went down to his room instantly, when I found 
that the servant's words were, alas ! but too 
true. I asked George why he had not called 
me, when he said that he had sent up, but now 
found that it had been to a wrong room. He 
told me that Sir Humphry went to sleep after 
we had left him, but that he had twice waked, 
and that at half-past one, hearing him get out 
of bed, he went to him, when Sir Humphry 
said he did not want his assistance, and poured 
some solution of acetate of morphine into a 
wine glass of water ; but this still remained 
untouched upon his table. George then helped 
him into bed, where he says he lay quite still 
till a little after two o'clock, when hearing him 
groan, he went to him, and found that he was 
senseless and expiring. He instantly called up 
Lady Davy and the Doctor, and sent up, as he 
believed, to me ; but Sir Humphry, he says, 
never spoke again, and expired without a sigh. 

I had so often, whilst at Rome, seen Sir 
Humphry lie for hours together in a state of 
torpor, and to all appearance dead, that it was 
difficult for me to persuade myself of the truth; 
but the delusion at length vanished, and it became 



242 CONCLUSION. 



too evident that all that remained before me of 
this great philosopher, was merely the cold and 
senseless frame with which he had worked. The 
animating spirit had fled to its oft self-imagined 
planetary world, there to join the rejoicing souls 
of the great and good of past ages, soaring from 
system to system, and with them still to do good 
in a higher and less bounded sphere, and I 
knew that it was freed from many a wearisome 
and painful toil : yet I could not look upon Sir 
Humphry as he was, without remembering that 
which he had been, and my tears would fall, spite 
of my effort to restrain them. 



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